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Thursday October 2, 2008

JAY-Z is set to play two free shows in support of US Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The hip-hop hero is hoping that the gigs will encourage people to sign up to vote in November’s US election.

The first show is set for Saturday, October 4 at Detroit’s Cobo Arena. The star will play Miami’s Bayfront Park Amphitheatre the following day. Voter registration for the upcoming election ends Monday.

Jay-Z is the latest high-profile musician to sign on for Obama benefits. Tuesday, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel announced an October 16 fundraiser at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

Obama recently spoke of his admiration for the current generation of hip-hop artists — and revealed that the 99 Problems hitmaker is a fixture on his iPod.

He said, “I enjoy it, but these days I don’t have the time to listen to it all the time.

“What I’ve appreciated, watching this hip-hop generation, is to see how entrepreneurial they’ve been. In the past, musicians oftentimes were commodities.”

“I think they’re [hip-hop artists] a lot more sophisticated than in the past, and that is a wonderful thing.”