Jay-Z to Christen Brooklyn's Barclays Center

As one of its most prominent citizens, Jay-Z is having a triumphant return to his hometown of Brooklyn to christen the new Barclays Center. The sports and entertainment arena will be home to the NBA team Brooklyn Nets. Hov is minority owner of the team and director of Brooklyn Arena LLC, which owns Barclays. As we have seen, the $1 billion complex features 19,000 seats, a Calvin Klein Courtside Club for VIPs, and a three-story HD scoreboard. It comes as no surprise that this is quite an emotional affair for Mr. Carter:

“I stand here and represent hope for Brooklyn, New York City,” said Jay-Z at a press conference last year. “I’m a son of Brooklyn. I think about growing up in Brooklyn in Marcy Projects and shooting jumpshots and thinking I could make it to the NBA, and now I’m standing here as an owner of a team that’s coming back to Brooklyn and the pride in bringing that dream so much closer to people from Marcy, from Tompkins, from Fort Greene, from Lafayette Gardens…”

The venue will launch with eight shows from Jay-Z starting Friday and play host to illustrious likes of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and more. Watch MTV’s RapFix Live above and take a tour through the arena.

Front-page photography: Getty Images