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For those hoping Jay-Z might break into a rhyme, Saturday night’s appearance at Virginia Union University might have been a slight disappointment.

But for most among the 2,400-ish people cramming the VUU gym, the mere presence of Hova – especially when he made a lap around the stage to shake hands with ringsiders on his way out the door – was enough.

In baggy jeans, a sweater vest, right-outta-the-box sneakers and a Yankees baseball cap that went over well with a crowd that seemed comprised of a significant number of transplanted New Yorkers, Jay-Z told the adoring throng, “For me to say go out and vote is one thing. But I want to see you. I want to look in your eyes.”

The purpose of Saturday’s appearance – which also included brief speeches from the godfather of hip-hop, Russell Simmons, and Kevin Liles, executive VP of Warner Music Group – was a final push to inspire young people to vote Nov. 4, preferably, as all on the lineup stated, for Barack Obama.

(For more on other Obama-related visits in Richmond Saturday, click here: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-11-01-0178.html).

Simmons appealed to the mostly young, African-American audience by recalling the landmark moment of Run-D.M.C. being played on MTV.

“When you put [them] on MTV, there were no black artists [on there] at all, except Michael Jackson,” he said, eliciting a chorus of cheers mixed with a few unhappy sounds.

But Simmons could have brought the Rev. Run and Jackson onto the tiny stage and it still might not have equaled the excitement generated by Jay-Z’s brief speech (fellow T-D reporter Olympia Meola clocked it at precisely four minutes and 25 seconds).

Jay did, though, make his time matter. At one point, he singled out a little girl pressed against the metal barricade surrounding the stage and stated, “She’s gonna grow up with the belief that she can be anything…that young lady, maybe she could be president.”

And with that, he flashed a peace sign, his mega-watt grin and shook his shoulders for a second to the thumping beat of one of his own songs that played him off the stage.

 

 

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