Jay Z and Kanye West Will Kick Off Samsung's SXSW Concerts

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Kanye West and Jay-Z perform in 2010 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. They will team up again at SXSW 2014 on Wednesday.

Image: Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

By Brian Anthony Hernandez2014-03-10 21:38:41 UTC

AUSTIN, Texas — Jay Z and Kanye West are aiming to run this town this week. Samsung exclusively told Mashable first that the rappers will kick off the tech company's four-day SXSW concert series, which starts Wednesday night.

Samsung plans to distribute concert wristbands only to owners of Galaxy devices with the newly launched ad-free radio service called Milk Music downloaded on their devices. They can pick up their wristbands at the Galaxy Experience pop-up location at 2nd Street and Trinity Street starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. CT.

The concerts' location won't be announced until show day.

Jay Z and his entertainment company Roc Nation previously partnered with Samsung in 2013 to release his 12th studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail . They gave away 1 million copies of the album, purchased for $5 each by Samsung, to Galaxy owners, who had to download an app to snag a copy. The stunt influenced the Recording Industry Association of America to modernize its 55-year-old certification process to immediately include digital sales.

Wednesday's concert will be the first time Jay Z and Kanye have performed together since Kanye joined Roc Nation earlier this month. They previously shared the stage in during the Watch the Throne tour, which ended in 2012.

Other musicians performing this week for Samsung will be Janelle Monae and Gary Clark Jr. on Thursday, Broken Bells on Friday, and Cut Copy and Holy Ghost! on Saturday.

Image: Samsung for Mashable

Last year, Samsung brought on Prince to headline the SXSW closing party. Meanwhile, Jay Z performed at SXSW in 2012 during an event to promote American Express's Twitter-based discounts program.

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