Jay-Z somehow managed to play seven shows in just 24 hours, starting at 6:00 AM in Atlanta and spending 30 minutes on each stage. He took his private jet around the states, also performing in Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Beyonce was seen at his California show, but did not perform.

Something which might seem impossible to complete was piece of cake for one the most successful rappers of all time. Jay-Z celebrated his official return in the music business by performing a seven 30-minute-gig marathon across the US.

The star kicked off his one-day tour in Atlanta on Saturday, where Hova was scheduled to give a concert at 6 a.m., when most people haven’t eaten their breakfast. Next in line were Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The mini-tour ends up in Las Vegas on early Sunday.

Together with his staff, Jay-Z crossed the states in his luxurious private jet from city to city making the best of his return. At least 100 people were waiting outside Atlanta’s Centerstage for the first concert. There were another hundred inside already in the mood for his performance.

“First of all, y’all crazy,” Jay-Z said to the crowd before he started to play. “I know I’m already crazy. But y’all crazy.”

30 minutes later, the rapper took off in a limo escorted by police until embarking on the plane. Before 10 a.m., the plane arrived in Philly where even more fans awaited his show. The line around the Electric Factory, in the 400 block of North Seventh Street, began forming hours before the 9:30 a.m. concert.

“I wish I had got here at 5 a.m. so I could’ve been the first person in line,” said Karima Dennis, 24, a housekeeper for the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue.

“Everything went smooth,” said Keith McPhee, whose Mack Productions handled the local end of production. “Jay’s flight was only five minutes late. He loved his set, and Philly turned out. You never know, Philly being Philly.”

The trip continued and as he reached his next stop at Howard University in Washington, almost 150 students were waiting for the convoy and 1500 more looked eager to hear him sing.

“I know y’all already downloaded it … but y’all gotta go and pick up the album on Tuesday,” he said while the crowd rapped along.

Jay-Z’s new album, “Kingdom Come,” is out tomorrow. At least one reviewer says it doesn’t flow like it should and the beats are too basic, but that there are some decent tracks and Jigga is showing his maturity. Some people claim it’s not up to his old work, but that it’s still better than most of the rap that’s out now.

Beyonce and Gwyneth are new BFFs, and hung out together and partied in London for Gwyneth’s 34th birthday. They shopped, went to dinner, saw Jay-Z perform, and then hit a club afterwards. Gwyneth’s husband Chris Martin even joined Jay-Z on stage during his performance at Royal Albert Hall while Gwyneth let loose and sung backup.

[from Beyonceworld.net]

London’s The Mirror said that Beyonce and Gwyneth talked about music and babies at the after party, but they’re making that shit up and running a story based on the photographs:

They all obviously had a great time and enjoyed themselves on Gwyneth’s birthday.

Thanks to BeyonceWorld.net for these pictures.

Update: Jay-Z was the first hip hop artist to headline at Albert Hall. He will play Paris tonight and Milan tomorrow.

“Lightweight” in the image caption above is not a literal reference to either Beyonce or Gwyneth’s weight, and just refers to the fact that Beyonce is visibly drunk in the pictures, while Gwyneth just looks tipsy.

It looks like Beyonce owes her figure to more than just drinking spicy water for two straight weeks. She revealed a figure-hugging pair of pantyhose while performing on Good Morning America.

She also rode the NY City Subway to a CD signing this week. The other passengers weren’t buying it. Check out the incredulous look one woman gives her.

In an interview on the annoying woman’s talkshow, “The View,” Beyonce said that she never talks about marriage with her boyfriend, Def Jam president Jay-Z, and that she’s relieved that she doesn’t get as much gossip coverage as other celebrities.

There is something to be said for the lack of drama in Beyonce’s life, which may explain why she’s not in the gossip rags as much. She’s been with Jay-Z for a while, and breakup, marriage, and career conflict stories don’t seem to phase them. They haven’t broken up or gotten engaged, so there’s not a lot to talk about except speculation.

Here are pictures of Beyonce courtesy of SplashNews and Celebrity Pictures.

Beyonce celebrated her 25th birthday and the drop of her inventively-titled new album, “B-Day” on Tuesday. She celebrated with a cake in her image on MTV’s “Total Request Live,” where the audience sang happy birthday to her. She also made an appearance on BET’s “106 and Park.”

The NY Daily News cites an insider who claims that Beyonce’s frenzied promotion of her album may make the pubilc tire of her well before “Dreamgirls” is released in December. What’s more, Beyonce is said to have released her album at this point because she’s not the star of “Dreamgirls” and doesn’t want a lot of competition from “American Idol” star Jennifer Hudson, who will steal the spotlight from her:

Beyonce is getting a lot of attention now, and that’s undoubtedly what she was hoping for.

She also received a lavish birthday gift from her boyfriend, Def Jam president Jay-Z. She was surprised with a 1959 Rolls Royce convertible worth over $1 million. I’m not one to look a gift horse, but doesn’t a gorgeous car seem like the kind of thing a guy would want? It sounds like Jay-Z just bought her something he really wanted. Jewelry seems more Beyonce’s style, although I’m sure she was thrilled with the car.

Here are pictures of Beyonce on TRL and 106 and Park yesterday.

Beyonce is said to have told her fiance, Def Jam head Jay-Z, to quit his job! She’s reportedly jealous of Jay-Z’s very close working relationship with her rival, singer Rihanna. He helped make Rihanna a star, but Beyonce is fuming and wants him to step down as CEO:

MediaTakeOut has a good record with getting exclusives, so this could be true. I don’t agree that Rihanna is the one who is going to lose, though. This is going to backfire on Beyonce. You never mess with a guy’s job. Jay-Z didn’t get where he is today by listening to bullshit from women telling him what to do. Beyonce is going to get called on this, and it’s not going to be pretty.

Beyonce is reportedly planning a huge wedding with Jay-Z that will take place this fall on the Island of Anguilla.

I bet Jay-Z is going to tell her to mind her own business and not to mess with his career. If he doesn’t take a stand now and actually does marry her, she’s going to try to run his life.

Pictures from BeyonceWorld.net of Beyonce performing on the Ellen DeGeneres show’s 5th anniversary premiere in New York. Look at ger whip that hair around. The episode airs on September 5th, which is Beyonce’s birthday and the day her album, “B’Day” is out. That would explain the cake.

Beyonce, 24, is reportedly planning to marry her boyfriend, Def Jam president Jay-Z, 36, in a lavish ceremony on the Island of Anguilla this November. Star reports that the reception has a $3 million price tag and that it will include $300,000 worth of caviar alone. There won’t be any Cristal at this bash:

That’s nice that Beyonce’s father has given his blessing as she was said to have some trouble getting out from under his thumb and running her own career and life.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard rumors that these two were getting married. Back in early June Jay-Z lost weight on a high-protein diet sponsored by Beyonce. People speculated that his weight loss was a sign that he was preparing to marry the pop singer.

In late June it was rumored that Beyonce and Jay-Z were spending too much time apart and that they were breaking up, but that was only reported by a single source and the couple has been spotted out and about many times since. They even performed together at Radio City Music Hall.

Beyonce recently revealed that she has a sexy dress she puts on whenever she needs to seduce her man. She even wrote a song about it called “Freakum Dress” that will be on her new album.

Pictures of Beyonce in performance and in September’s Essence magazine are after the jump.
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Jay-Z performed his whole first album, “Reasonable Doubt,” at Radio City Music Hall last night to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release. Other artists joining him on stage included Sauce Money, Foxy Brown and Memphis Bleek. The Roots’ Amir Questlove, The Illadelphonics, and The Hustler’s Symphony Orchestra made up his band.

Jay-Z’s girlfriend, Beyonce, joined him for the last song, “Can’t Knock The Hustle,” which was originally a duet with Mary J. Blige.

Jay-Z announced his international tour, which will kick off this fall. He also hasn’t ruled out another album after declaring his retirement in 2003:

Jay-Z does have a new album coming out. Starch blabbed that he’s working with Jigga on a new release:

It looks like Jay-Z is recording an album after all. It also seems like he’s still going strong with Beyonce despite the breakup rumors. They had a public fight at a basketball game as reported by Page Six and Beyonce was said to be jealous of Jay-Z’s relationship with singer Rhianna. A story last week had the two breaking up due to hectic schedules and Jay-Z’s inability to commit.

Pictures [via]

SocialRank claims to have an exclusive that Jay-Z and Beyonce are calling off their relationship due to too much time apart and too many conflicts. There was a rumor last month that they were getting married after Jay-Z lost weight on a diet supervised by Beyonce, but that was influenced by Beyonce’s own success in the dieting department and didn’t seem like a strong enough indication that they were preparing for a wedding:

[via]

It sounds like they’re both too busy to spend time together, and that Jay-Z is too focused on sports and partying to settle down. That is really common and I have dated guys like that. As much as you love them, you have to move on to someone who has the same goals in life and is ready for a long term commitment.

Beyonce was said to be jealous of Jay-Z’s very close working relationship with hot singer Rhianna, but it doesn’t seem like Jay-Z and Rhianna were having more than a flirtatious friendship.

There is only a single source for this news now, so until it’s confirmed and reported all over we aren’t sure it’s true. Even if it’s spot-on, it will probably be a while before the breakup is acknowledged.

Here are Beyonce and Jay-Z taking care not to be photographed together as they leave a NY hotel on 6/12, and some candids of Beyonce in NY alone on 6/15. [via]

The hip-hop community has given Cristal champage tons of free publicity by consuming it by the case, mentioning it in songs, and opening their fridges on the MTV show “Cribs” to show chilled bottles. As a result, Cristal has become a household name:

The managing director of Cristal, Frederic Rouzaud, expressed misgivings about rappers endorsement of his brand in a new article in The Economist, stating that he views the attention with “curiosity and serenity.” Nevermind the fact that hip hop stars are his biggest customers. He’s afraid they could damage the brand’s precious blue blood image, and said that rappers can go drink another kind of champagne:

Powerful rap mogul Jay-Z has called Rouzaud on his snotty racist remarks and is refusing to drink Cristal or sell it at his 40/40 sports bar.

The head of Cristal is such an asshole and if he doesn’t issue a retraction soon we hope the hip hop community will call an all out boycott on the drink. He’s new so maybe the board of directors or the company will fire him for making such a stupid comment. We hope Diddy will speak out next. If those idiots at Cristal don’t want all the business and free publicity then they can go back to selling the shit to country clubs and estate parties and see how their exclusive attitude makes sales tank.

Def Jam president Jay-Z, 36, lost 15 pounds thanks to a diet his girlfriend Beyonce, 24, put him on. He is said to be feasting on high protein meals and lots of vegetables and to have given up candy. Jay-Z’s weight loss has people speculating that the famous couple may be planning to get married:

Beyonce has been focussing on her figure and probably encouraged Jay-Z to lose weight as a result. We don’t think it means that they’re preparing for marriage.

Beyonce is not one to give nutritional advice. She said that she lost over 20 pounds for her Dreamgirls role by fasting and drinking spicy water for over a week, and that she gained some of the weight back by eating a lot of fried food.

The two have hit a rought patch lately, with reports that they were fighting at a playoff game, and that Beyonce is jealous of Jigga’s very friendly working relationship with sexy singer Rhianna.

Jay-Z and Beyonce are pairing up again in the studio. They are collaborating on Beyonce’s new album, to be released on her 25th birthday, September 4th. The pair had a big hit with Beyonce’s 2003’s single “Crazy in Love.”

Jay-Z is pictured with Bill Gates, above [via] and at the 2006 Music Visionary of the Year Award breakfast on 5/24 with Daniel Glass and Antonio L.A. Reid. He is also shown on 5/22 at a NY Listening Session. He looks great.