He even rapped the track’s second verse over the classic riffs of AC/DC’s Back in Black, an effortless segue from the rattling guitar riffs of 99 Problems. Cutting the track like a magician waving a wand, he soaked in the deafening cheers, before ushering in the Rick Rubin-produced 99 Problems. Jay-Z’s tremendously sarcastic rendition of Gallagher’s magnum opus was a knockout punch to the doubters, and one in particular, as Glastonbury collectively chuckled. Walking to the stage draped in a black-and-green scarf, sunglasses, black hooded jacket and an acoustic guitar, the familiar opening sequence of Oasis’s Wonderwall infiltrated the stage. Gallagher’s snark aside, hip-hop was ready to triumph in one of music’s grandest arenas. Jay himself was back at the summit after what he described as “the worst retirement in history”. Kanye West was broadening the form as he polished his breakup fantasia 808s and Heartbreak ahead of release. Three weeks before Jay-Z’s set, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III sold more than 1m copies in its first week in the US to become one of the fastest selling albums of all time. By 2008, rap was in the midst of a rise to becoming the biggest genre on the planet. Gallagher must not have been paying attention to what was going on in music. Glastonbury has the tradition of guitar music … I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. Noel Gallagher of Oasis told the BBC in the lead up: “I’m sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. The announcement of Jay-Z as the first rapper to headline Glastonbury in its then-38-year history was generally acclaimed, but went down badly in certain quarters.
I was 16 and unfamiliar with Glastonbury’s prestige, but I knew that greatness was taking place. I got one question: where’s the love?” The chorus that followed was a rejection of the dubious notion that Jay-Z couldn’t headline the festival – that hip-hop couldn’t headline the festival.
“They said you guys are not into hip-hop.
‘T hey say you guys didn’t want me to be here tonight,” Jay-Z said towards the end of his landmark 2008 Glastonbury headline set.
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