Before music moments were clipped for TikTok, reposted across Instagram or dissected online within minutes, television was one of the places where culture happened collectively.
That idea sits at the centre of JAŸ-Z 30’s new Trafalgar Square installation, the second London activation and pop-up, marking 30 years of JAŸ-Z’s career. Rather than simply recreating the visual language of the late ’90s and early 2000s, the installation looks back at the technology through which many fans originally experienced some of hip-hop’s defining moments: the television screen. At the heart of the installation is a huge assemblage of 250 CRT monitors, ranging from large video-wall screens to smaller broadcast monitors, creating a physical monument to an era before social media and the internet became music’s primary distribution engine.
The installation combines CRT screens from Seleco, Hantarex, Barco, Panasonic and JVC, supported by a CRTV UK Resolume server rack with 250 channels of standards conversion. But the technology isn’t there simply for nostalgia. The second JAŸ-Z 30 pop-up also includes a small retail space, giving fans the chance to pick up a selection of merchandise alongside the Trafalgar Square installation.
Recreating the television era that helped build JAŸ-Z
General Idea Agency Creative Director Ian Schatzberg, who designed the installation, says the starting point for JAŸ-Z 30 was returning audiences to the media environment surrounding some of the rapper’s most recognisable moments.
Taking fans back to the era of JAŸ-Z’s most iconic hits has been the starting point for JAŸ-Z30. So many people back then experienced music culture directly through television…
One moment in particular informed the Trafalgar Square installation: JAŸ-Z’s performance of “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” at the 2001 BET Awards.
The performance aired before the release of The Blueprint, taking the track directly into homes at a moment when broadcast television could still create a mass cultural event almost instantly.
As Schatzberg explains:
“This installation is a nod to the television landscape that carried JAŸ-Z’s ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A.)’ performance at the 2001 BET Awards into people’s living rooms before The Blueprint even came out.”
Seen in that context, the wall of televisions becomes more than retro set dressing. It represents a media ecosystem that no longer exists in quite the same wa; one where millions of people could encounter an artist, performance or cultural moment through the same broadcast at roughly the same time. Today, those moments are fragmented across TikTok clips, Instagram Reels, YouTube uploads and fan footage. In 2001, television still had the power to turn a performance into a shared event.
250 screens, one installation
The Trafalgar Square structure is made up of:
- 47 28-inch video-wall CRT monitors, including Seleco SMV300, Hantarex MGG 28 EQ and Barco SCM2850 models
- 51 Panasonic TCM21 21-inch CRT monitors
- 54 JVC TM Series 17-inch monitors
- 20 JVC TM Series 14-inch monitors
- 60 JVC TM Series 10-inch monitors
Together, the screens create an installation that feels somewhere between broadcast archive, public artwork and cultural time capsule. And placed in Trafalgar Square (one of London’s most visible public spaces) the work takes what was once an intimate living-room experience and blows it up into something communal again.
JAY-Z makes a surprise appearance in Trafalgar Square
The activation took on another dimension when JAY-Z himself made a surprise appearance at the Trafalgar Square installation, drawing a crowd around the space on Tuesday evening.
Distract had visited the installation earlier in the day and later that evening to explore the experience and capture the details of the new activation.
JAY-Z 30 London Pop-Up: Dates, Times and Location
JAY-Z 30 Trafalgar Square opening times
The JAY-Z 30 London pop-up and art installation is open at Trafalgar Square from 1–5 September 2026.
1–4 September: 11am–7pm
5 September: 12pm–6pm
JAY-Z London concerts: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 4 and 5 September 2026
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