Taking time out from his US tour for this one-off gig at Alexandra Palace, Jay-Z continued his habit of making headlines in the UK by selling out the 8,000 capacity venue in just 15 seconds.

With A-list celebrity guests such as Coldplay’s Chris Martin with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow alongside Chelsea’s Ashley Cole and, of course, Beyonce herself, the stage was set for a memorable show.

As the countdown to Jigga’s arrival began on the huge video screens, the anticipation cranked up a few notches and the capacity crowd nearly blew the roof off this venerable old venue when the man himself, sporting trademark shades and “all black everything”, hit the stage.

Tearing through ‘D.O.A.’ and ‘Run This Town’ from his new album The Blueprint 3, Jay was taking no prisoners and a fantastic backing band with full horn section made a blistering rendition of ’99 Problems’ a real highlight.

Moving on to a medley of his older hits, some of his lyrical dexterity was lost in the cavernous hall but he hit his stride again in some style with ‘Empire State Of Mind’, a track fast-becoming an NYC anthem to rival Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’, which he cheekily segued into at the end.

The only bum note was the close of show when Kanye West protégé Mr. Hudson joined Jay-Z on stage for ‘Young Forever’, one of the weakest and weirdest tunes on the album. Jay got the crowd going by announcing they were being filmed for the upcoming video and they duly responded with a sea of lighters held aloft.

Despite that, and it’s admittedly a very small grumble, Jay-Z once again showed that the triumphant performance at Glastonbury was no one-off, making history’s the norm for one of hip hop’s true all-time greats.