The American rapper will perform Friday at the Louis Vuitton Foundation on the sidelines of an exhibition combining the works of Warhol and Basquiat. The 1,500 available places sold out immediately after the announcement.
Blockbuster event, exceptional concert: Jay-Z, rap megastar, gives a surprise show on Friday evening at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, in connection with the exhibition “Basquiat x Warhol, four hands” announces Wednesday the turner of the artist.
The 1,500 seats in the Louis Vuitton Foundation auditorium were sold out immediately after this announcement on the social networks of Live Nation, a world-class concert production structure. The American will play at 9 p.m.
Basquiat, a painter who died of an overdose at the age of 27 on August 12, 1988, has influenced many contemporary artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West or A$AP Rocky. Jay-Z is also known as an art collector. In addition, an extremely rare work by the painter was used in 2021 for a Tiffany & Co advertisement, in which Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé were the stars.
Painting and music
Paris is currently hosting two exhibitions around Basquiat. That at the Louis Vuitton Foundation and “Basquiat Soundtracks”, at the Philharmonie de Paris, which exhibits paintings and drawings by the artist related to the music of his life. Because the music often resonates with the work of Basquiat. References to Charlie Parker, genius of jazz, are thus found in several of his works.
Basquiat listened to music in his loft-workshop (collection of nearly 3,000 vinyls), in clubs, but he also practiced it, as an occasional DJ or clarinetist in an experimental group.
In addition to an figuration in the clip of Rapture of the group Blondie, he even produced for his friend the New York rapper Rammellzee a title, Beat Bop, in 1983, for which he also designed the cover. A cycle of concert-events is also scheduled at the Philharmonie in parallel with the exhibition, with, among others, Mos Def, an American rapper who now calls himself Yasiin Bey. On the evening of his death, Basquiat was to attend the concerts of the rap groups Run-DMC and Public Enemy.
