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Jay-Z delivered this freestyle during his “Blueprint Lounge Tour” on September 14, 2001 – just five days after the 9/11 tragedy.

The release of Hov’s sixth studio album The Blueprint coincided with the deadly terror attack; after its release was moved up a week in order to combat bootlegging. He was in Los Angeles shooting the video for “Girls, Girls, Girls” at the time of the attack, and in 2011 shared the memory of the moment he saw the destruction caused to his home city:

I flew to L.A. I was shooting a video for a song called ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ I’d dropped my album The Blueprint on the same day. And I just remember waking up in L.A. and thinking everybody was playing, like ‘That can’t be,’ then turning on the TV and it looked like something from one of those apocalyptic movies.

In this freestyle Hov acknowledges the devastation of the 9/11 tragedy, while also addressing homegrown terrorism – such as the mass incarceration of the African-American community and America’s drug dependency.

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When and where did Jay Z perform "9-11 Freestyle"?
Genius Answer

Jay-Z performed this freestyle during his “Blueprint Lounge Tour” in September and October 2001.

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September 14, 2001
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