Jay-Z's three-night residency at Yankee Stadium, celebrating 30 years since Reasonable Doubt and 25 years since The Blueprint, was the product of months of meticulous planning by his closest collaborators. Longtime engineer and DJ Young Guru, music director Omar Edwards and bassist Adam Blackstone told Billboard how the shows came together, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at the production behind what may be one of Jay-Z's last performances of this scale at the venue, given he is now 56.

Planning began in March with a text thread between Jay-Z and Edwards that later grew to include Blackstone, Young Guru and Beyoncé's music director Khirye Tyler, with Edwards estimating "30-40 edits" before the show structure was finalised. Blackstone assembled a ten-piece band, an 18-piece string section and a horn arrangement capable of learning three distinct sets within weeks, while Questlove's suggestion to dedicate a night to the whole Blueprint trilogy was adapted into a focus on the original 2001 album. Rehearsals began on 18 June in New York, giving the team roughly three weeks to prepare, though the intended one-week-per-show schedule slipped. The residency also saw a chaotic "Extra Innings" incident on the Sunday date, when unticketed fans rushed the gates, causing a lengthy delay.