Jay-Z is coming to Africa: How Billboard.com ‘fooled’ African media

A couple of days ago, I received a lot of flak when I published dates for a Jay-Z world tour and immediately pulled it down to publish an apology that my information on the tour was wrong.  When I received a tip that Jay-Z had included Ghana and several African countries his in world tour, I immediately googled ‘jay-z world tour’ and the most direct result was from Billboard.com so I clicked on it to read further.

The article had the information: “Jay-Z has nailed down details for a seven-week world tour to spread awareness of the world’s water crisis. The trek will begin Sept. 9 in Krakow, Poland, and run through Oct. 28 in Melbourne. It will be chronicled via the MTV documentary “Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life,” which will premiere Nov. 24 on the network.”

It also included the dates for the world tour as follows:

Sept. 9: Krakow, Poland (Coca-Cola SW Live Festival)
Sept. 10: Bratislava, Slovakia (Incheba)
Sept. 15: Amsterdam (Heineken Music Hall)
Sept. 16: Germany (TBA)
Sept. 18: Istanbul (Refresh the Venue)
Sept. 19: Athens (Olympic Arena)
Sept. 21: Manchester, England (Evening News Arena)
Sept. 22: Glasgow (SECC)
Sept. 23: Birmingham, England (National Indoor Arena)
Sept. 24: London (Wembley Arena)
Sept. 26: Dublin (the Point)
Sept. 27: London (Royal Albert Hall)
Sept. 29: Paris (Le Zenith)
Sept. 30: Milan (Fiera di Milano)
Oct. 2: Barcelona (Teatro Heineken)
Oct. 4: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Diamond Jubilee)
Oct. 6: Accra, Ghana (Accra Conference Center)
Oct. 7: Lagos, Nigeria (Ocean View)
Oct. 9: Luanda, Angola (Cine Karl Max)
Oct. 11: Cape Town, South Africa (Belleville Velodrome)
Oct. 13: Durban, South Africa (ABSA Stadium Outer Fields)
Oct. 14: Johannesburg (Coca Cola Dome)
Oct. 17: Hong Kong (TBA)
Oct. 18: Bangkok, Thailand (BEC Tero Hall)
Oct. 20: Seoul, Korea (Walker Hill Gayagum Concert Hall)
Oct. 21: Taipei, Taiwan (Taipei Dome)
Oct. 23: Singapore, Singapore (Suntec City Concert Hall)
Oct. 25: Sydney (Entertainment Centre)
Oct. 27: Brisbane, Australia (Entertainment Centre)
Oct. 28: Melbourne (Rod Laver Arena)

  Since there was no year attached to the dates and Billboard.com articles don’t show the dates they were published,  I immediately assumed they were dates for this year, especially since the article was top in my

After publishing it, a friend on twitter brought it to my attention that the dates were of the rapper’s 2006 World Tour which brought him to Ghana, Angola, South Africa among others.   In fact some comments on the article about a similar confusion from South Africa, suggested that the SA tour dates are same as it was in 2006. I also then did a quick search for the date of the 2006 Ghana gig and realised same.  These led me to immeidatley remove the article and replace it with the apology.

However it seems that I wasn’t the only one that was ‘fooled’ by the Billboard post. Several reputable media outlets across Africa and in particular, Nigeria continue to publish dates for Jay-Z’s tour. So I wonder, is the rapper really coming to Africa this year or were the majority of us done in by the old article from Billboard? Jay-Z if you are out there somewhere, please speak out!!!