Jay-Z impressed in front of an 7,000 sell-out crowd at the hallowed surroundings of Alexandra Palace in North London last night (November 4).

The rap mogul took a break from his American tour to perform the special one-off show which largely showcased his new album 'The Blueprint 3'.

Wearing shades throughout, Jay-Z appeared cocky and confident as he arrived on stage and quickly dispatched tracks like 'D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune)' and a blistering '99 Problems'.

Watched by Coldplay's Chris Martin and Premiership footballer on the side-lines, the Jigga Man was also flanked by a full band and horn section which gave extra depth to tracks like 'Show Me What You've Got'.

Stand-out moments came via current single 'Run This Town' and 'Empire State Of Mind', which despite the absence of Rihanna and Alicia Keys respectively, still worked perfectly – the latter seguing into Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York'.

As well as energetic hype man Memphis Bleek, Kanye West's best chum Mr Hudson joined Jay-Z for 'Blueprint 3' track 'Young Forever' to a stiffled reaction from the crowd.

The set closed with a voluminous 'Big Pimpin' and a triumphant 'Hard Knock Life', with the band playing the riff from Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' as the lights went up.

(by Scott Colothan)