http://slyoyster.com

November 9th will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The short (six-songs) U2 concert that took place at the Brandenburg Gate yesterday ran into some trouble after — no lie — a huge wall was constructed to keep non-ticket holders from watching the free concert.

Controversy aside, Jay-Z does little but his presence adds a certain amount of swagger to this already swaggering song.  It’s easy to hate on U2 — the conventional argument is that the band hasn’t done anything worthwhile in nearly 1.5 decades.  But that’s bound to happen to any band that’s been together and still playing after 30 years.  It’s impossible, I say, to watch the above clip and not get goose-pimples, to not marvel at just how huge U2 and Jay-Z are as cultural ambassadors.

Jay-Z’s new album is streaming right here.  But the album has already leaked, so there’s a good chance that if you don’t already have it on your computer, you’re either a solid music citizen.  And if you don’t already have it (what are you waiting for?) you can listen to it at MTV.

Max Tannone (DJ Minty Fresh) had such success mashing up Radiohead and Jay-Z that he’s back for another round in The Encore. This time around he’s only dropped five songs, but if you enjoyed the strange collaboration the first time around, and god did we ever, a second helping for the second half of the year will do you well.  It’s a free download so there ya go.  Five new tunes to get the day started.

As Stereogum points out, it’s the irony of irony to have Kanye West produce the first track off Jigga’s Blueprint 3 album about the death of auto-tune, but “having T-Pain onstage while you publicly debut the song is some next-level shit” at the Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert at Giant’s Stadium.

Still, meta-irony aside, Jay’s dropped another great track from what will probably be the album event of the year.  Yes, albums are now similar to President’s Day car sales.

The Blueprint 3 is out 9/11/09, eight years to the day after the release of the original Blueprint, via Jay’s Roc Nation with distribution by Atlantic. More info at Billboard.

I feel like my head just exploded.  You are likely to not watch anything more fun and delish than this all week.  How great is this?  From the subtitles or the Fozzy cameo, this cover kinda rules.  If you’re not familiar with Jay-Z’s original you can check that out first.  Otherwise just put your seat back into the laugh position.

Last night at Glastonbury, UK’s venerable music festival, Jay-Z took to the stage and pimped slapped Oasis’s Noel Gallagher by mockingly opening his set with “Wonderwall.”

Some back story: A little bit ago, Noel Gallagher said that Jay-Z and hip-hop don’t belong at the festival.  In fact, the word he used was “wrong.”

Jay-Z defended himself and the supposed beef had everyone all aflutter.  And I think it’s safe to say that Jigga took to the stage and put the beef to rest.  Brilliant and classy way to tell Noel he’s a douche.  Even if the performance itself is pretty awful, the intention behind it is anything but.

It’s not. Recently, an old song titled “Ain’t I” surfaced and led to much speculation over whether or not this was going to lead to a Blueprint 3. It’s a great song and considering the timing of the leak, with Jigga’s American Gangster album still doing pretty well (though we cop to not having gotten a copy yet), releasing a new song not from the album makes little business sense.

Still, with lyrics on “Ain’t I” that relate to Jay-Z’s current state of affairs (”I took a pay cut to become a exec/ So the next mother—-er can earn his paycheck/ And even though these n—as talk greasy ’bout me/ Ask these n—as how they gonna eat without me!”), people think that there’s some validity to rumors about the impending release of Blueprint 3.

“I’m a hustler’s hustler/ a gangster’s gangster/ I’m a rapper’s rapper/ Your favorite, ain’t I?” Jay-Z spits. And the beat reminds you of the vibe from his back-in-day Timbaland collaboration “Lobster and Scrimp.”

Well, MTV News contacted Jay-Z’s rep Wednesday night. Jay’s spokesperson said that, while the song may be new to the general public, it is an old recording that was previously unreleased. Jigga’s rep also said he has made no announcement about a new LP, Blueprint 3 or otherwise.

So there ya go. Great tune, but it’s just that. Not connected in any way to any upcoming albums, etc. Though don’t be surprised if this track winds up on a future album because it’s that good.

Mp3: “Ain’t I”