The rider is always a measure of how much of a rock or rap star you truly are and the most significant test of rock ‘n’ roll credentials. While some will opt for a pre-match meal of room temperature water and kale salad before storming the stage, others get their fuel in a less nutritious manner and delivered through various methods. Jay-Z had his own version of an incredible rider request.
When you’re on tour, having fun with your rider requests is a quintessential part of life-on-the-road. Knowing that somebody is working at the venue, whose job is to find whatever bizarre items you have written down on your rider request, can make artists drunk on power and challenge themselves to see how absurd they can make their requests.
Sometimes the request’s aren’t even extravagant or expensive but are just downright odd and not what you’d expect world-famous artists to rely on as they trot around the globe.
A rider gives fans a glimpse into what some superstar artists are like when they are off-stage, and on occasion, it’s as glamourous or hedonistic as you’d expect. However, a few earth-shatteringly humbling omissions from artists act as a reminder that they are very much human.
If you expected Jay-Z to opt for a list as simple as a usual rapper’s then you’d be way off the mark. Having just one dressing room isn’t enough for the superstar rapper. Neither is two, or three, or four. In fact, Jay-Z doesn’t settle for anything less than seven dressing rooms — which is nothing short of absurd.
On top of the seven dressing rooms, Jay-Z requested “good quality peanut butter”, “good quality grape jelly” and a “love seat”, which some poor member of staff at venues all over the world would have had to find somehow to accommodate the rapper.
