For Krug it is worth it. He’s responsible for most of the concerts at Yankee Stadium and says that between the baseball and NYCFC soccer games the venue hosts, he can only plan one or two a year, usually a big artist like Paul McCartney or Madonna. “So that’s one of the reasons why we’re a little picky or picky about who it is,” he says, “because we really want to make sure we have the best artist possible for that small window that we have.”

Like the Knicks’ victory, the World Cup, and maybe even Swift’s wedding, Jay-Z’s anniversary shows indicate an appreciation of real-life events, of the collective experience of watching live music or an NBA team’s ticker-tape parade.

A recent survey by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra found that 78 percent of respondents believed live performances were an aspect of the arts where “AI will not touch human creativity.” Meanwhile, artists like Phoebe Bridgers are also opting for smartphone-free shows to make their concerts more intimate.

The mini-residency is also just the latest in a series of local events planned for the anniversaries of Reasonable Doubt and The plan. In the lead-up to concerts at Yankee Stadium, Jay-Z partnered with Spotify to acquire parts of the New York City subway, worked with the Brooklyn Public Library on special “JAŸ-Z30” library cards, and set up a pop-up store in Dumbo in a warehouse that appeared in the “Dead Presidents” video.

People are hungry for authenticity, says Isra Ali, professor of media, culture and communication at NYU Steinhardt, and in that environment, “the value of in-person contact increases.” Jay-Z’s anniversary shows, then, are a chance for one of the world’s biggest and seemingly untouchable artists to connect with local audiences.