Jay-Z show, including Nas, Cam'ron, christens renovated Webster Hall in Manhattan

Jay-Z christened the renovated Webster Hall with a memorable two-hour “B-Sides 2” show packed with surprises before it wrapped up early Saturday morning, including unexpected appearances from Nas and Cam’ron.

“There’s so much love in the building,” Jay-Z said and went on to prove it, handing out glasses of champagne to the crowd like he was hosting an exclusive cocktail party. He delivered a moving freestyle tribute to the late rapper Nipsey Hussle in the middle of “Some How, Some Way,” encouraging people to “Gentrify your own hood before these people do it… That’s a small glimpse into what Nipsey was doing.”

And then he proved that his biggest beefs were now squashed. He and Nas teamed up for a version of “Success” before they traded verses from Nas’ “The World Is Yours” and Jay’s “Dead Presidents” and then went into Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind.” After he brought out Cam’ron and Jim Jones, Jay said that Nas and Cam’ron were not his enemies, “they are my brothers.”

While wife Beyonce’s “Homecoming” documentary and album from last week are all about the payoff of precision and practice, Jay’s “B-Sides 2” show was all about the vibe, the R&B-drenched one built by him and the excellent 7-piece Roc Boys band, augmented by Just Blaze and Guru on the turntables. “Y’all don’t mind if it’s raggedy,” Jay half-asked the crowd, before offering a thunderous snippet of his “Public Service Announcement.” However, he stopped it after the first lines, saying, “That’s cheating.”

This was, after all, a night for the “Empire State of Mind” rapper’s lesser-known work, though the crowd of “Day 1” fans pretty much knew it all, impressing Jay several times. It was a night for “Dear Summer” and his memorable verses on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free?” and Diddy’s “Young G’s.” And it was a night to show how deep Jay-Z’s catalog really is, how entertaining and powerful he can be, even without his biggest hits in his arsenal.

It was a historic night to mark the reopening of the historic venue, which first opened in 1886 and has been also known as The Ritz as well as Webster Hall. The 17 months of renovations that followed its purchase by BSE Global and The Bowery Presents in 2017 were mainly structural and behind-the-scenes, keeping the feel of the East Village venue intact. Yes, the floor still shakes some when a big bass line rumbles through.

Like other BSE Global venues, which include NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum and Barclays Center, Webster Hall now has a dramatic entry and bar where the former Marlin Room used to be. And Jay-Z, who also christened Barclays Center, made sure Webster Hall’s next chapter had an unforgettable start.