Hov did not waste any time addressing multiple elephants in the room. He opened the set with “Hovi Baby” and then immediately went full a capella to address Tory Lanez, the incarcerated rapper’s father Sonstar Peterson, Dame Dash, Ye (formerly Kanye West), Oschino Vasquez, Jaguar Wright, Nicki Minaj, and Drake.

The quality of the freestyle falls into the ear of the beholder; still, there is something to say about the fact that he is jabbing yet again at his longtime rival and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella while also addressing newer opposition such as Lanez’s father. “The Roc’s not crumbling/ Leprechauns have run out of pranks/ Your son in a federal jail mumbling something ‘bout having too much in his drink,” he rapped.

Minaj may have caught the most scathing bars, which says a lot because he quite literally held himself back. “That lady back on that stuff/ She like she in love with ‘em/ Her Ken can’t even… / Take they kid….. / Enough of them,” Jay spat as if he wanted to go further but knew he had said enough.

Of course, what people were most interested in was whether the Roc Nation leader would respond to Drizzy’s disses from multiple records on ICEMAN, namely the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Janice STFU.” Well, his name isn’t Janice, so he did not shut up.

Jigga declared no rapper could be his “opp” when the government is run by MAGA Republicans —noteworthy considering he seemed to have positive interactions with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, members of that side — before attempting to put Drake in his “little brother” place again.

“The jig is up, n—a I’m up 10, wrong chart champ, n—as looked up to Hov, I never looked up to them,” he rapped emphatically. Jay-Z is either finally feeling the weight of all who hold disdain for him and getting riled up, is unfazed and looking to shut the door on any possible future beefs before they begin, or somewhere in between those two extremes. Needless to say, he sees and hears it all, and won’t go silently.

When the “No Church in the Wild” beat came on, two trains of thought occurred. One, there was no shot Frank Ocean would appear, but if anyone could pull those strings, it would be one of the most notorious string-pullers in hip hop history. Well, that did not happen, but he did call on Bilal to handle Ocean’s chorus and The-Dream’s bridge; the 46-year-old did those portions of the record justice and more, with a special falsetto note akin to Dream’s signature, original delivery.

The second train of thought was that there was absolutely no way Ye (formerly Kanye West) would be there, especially after he got dissed the second song into the set. Instead of letting the verse run in the background or cutting the beat short, the wily veteran broke out into his legendary 2006 Grammy Family Freestyle which originally debuted on Hot 97. Though attendees didn’t get the entire thing, it was more than enough and solidified itself as one of the high points of the set.

About halfway through the set, the opening beats of “Feelin’ It” rang out throughout Belmont Plateau. Instead of Mecca, though, Jigga welcomed Philadelphia’s own Jazmine Sullivan to the stage to perform the chorus. As the record drew to a close, Sullivan began showing off just how much her vocals could do, even to the delight of Jay. “Oh, she’s warming up,” he stated to the crowd.

This set the stage for the Grammy winner to have some time to herself, and she made it worthwhile. The R&B veteran blessed the crowd with a powerful performance of her classic 2008 record “Need U Bad.” How could something with bad in the title feel so good? Only Sullivan, and that was all she needed to do before heading off the stage.

Later on, the opening notes of Meek Mill’s “Dreams And Nightmares” blared through the speakers. The Dreamchaser stepped out, paid his respects to whom he called the “greatest of all-time,” and delivered an impassioned performance of his classic intro. While at this point it is safe to assume this is as easy as breathing for the Championships artist, there was something about the experience happening in his city that made it feel even more larger than life. Though some (us) selfishly wanted their “What’s Free” collaboration, it made perfect sense for him to figuratively drop the microphone and leave after that adrenaline-raising performance. The city’s son completed the mission.

Jay gave the attendees a little history lesson about his “Dead Presidents” series. If you don’t know it, we’ll make it quick. “Dead Presidents I” was a promotional single for his 1996 debut LP, Reasonable Doubt. It never made the album and was replaced by “Dead Presidents II,” which featured different bars. “Dead Presidents III” was recorded around his farewell project, 2003’s The Black Album, but reportedly never finished.

It leaked on the internet four years later, and in 2013, via a fan Q&A session, Hov gave Young Guru and Just Blaze permission to post the record on Guru’s Soundcloud. Better late than never, right? Alright, back to the present.

Jay asked the crowd which song he should perform, which ultimately did not matter because he proceeded to rap parts of all three. Rap nerds in Philly and beyond, lettuce touchers, and relentless dream pursuers were presumably overjoyed at this reality.

As Jay got deeper into the second half of his set, he built toward a Roc-A-Fella reunion that many people predicted would happen, given the fact that certain members of the former label call Philadelphia home. “It’s the Roc, baby, sing our lullaby,” he chanted in “La-La-La (Excuse Me Miss Again)” before pivoting to “You, Me, Him And Her.”

Memphis Bleek hit the stage first to perform his verse, followed by fellow featured artist and Philly’s own, Beanie Sigel. This was only the beginning, as Peedi Crakk then spawned for Beans’s “Gotta Have It.” The audio equipment may not have been ready for what came next, as Freeway joined the fun for spirited renditions of “Roc The Mic” and “Flipside.”

State Property was already well represented, but the Young Gunz came in blazing with “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.” And, of course, you can’t have Beans, Free, and Hov together and not perform the anthemic “What We Do.” When it was all said and done, Jay could only exchange handshakes and hugs with his former signees and express how great it was to be standing alongside his brothers. It was great for us, too.

Alright, so another situation where we knew Ye wasn’t going to come out, nor would his verse be played. It was business as usual for Jay, dropping his quotable-laden “N—as In Paris” verse and going opposite of the hypothetically 0-82 Brooklyn Nets. And where the Donda artist would have been under normal (loosely used) circumstances, Jay instead took things back to 2000 for his “Big Pimpin’” verse over the “N—as In Paris” beat, before fully transitioning to the “Big Pimpin’” side of things.

And in a twist, he brought it back to “N—as In Paris,” but paid special homage to Pimp C. “Smokin’ out, pourin’ up/ Keepin’ lean up in my cup,” he rapped in honor of the late artist’s verse on the jam. We did not know we needed this, but life is all about embracing the unknown and unexpected.

At one point in the evening, the Brooklyn rapper asked the crowd if they were satisfied or if they wanted more. A select few people began to scream, asking for Beyoncé to come out and perform. Hov politely said that she wasn’t working tonight, and jokingly displayed offense at the fact that he had already given the fans so much, yet they demanded more.

He asked the crowd if they were ready to go home, to which they said no. He, however, said that he was indeed ready to exit stage left. Fortunately for the attendees, he didn’t do so. Later, while performing the self-proclaimed Black national anthem “Public Service Announcement (Interlude),” he exclaimed that he “missed this s—t” multiple times.

And when it was all said and done, he shouted out The Roots for accompanying him during the set, thanked them for inspiring him to bring his A-game every performance, and reflected on their 2001 live album Unplugged. His enthusiasm was palpable. One of those “You had to be there” type of scenarios.