Jay-Z to open The Brooklyn Nets' new basketball stadium

The rapper will perform at the opening night of the new basketball stadium

Jay-Z is to play a series of concerts to open the new stadium of his basketball team The Brooklyn Nets.

The rapper is part owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team, formerly called The New Jersey Nets.

This season the team will make its debut at their new home, the Barclays Centre, in Brooklyn.

Jay-Z, who grew up in Brooklyn, told reporters he never imagined that someday he would own a basketball team.

"I think I'm the American dream," he said.

"That whole thing that you could come here and pull yourself up by the bootstraps, like that whole thing what America has always put up to the world that we represent. I feel that, yes, I've lived that."

Jay-Z made the comments at the launch party for the NBA 2K13 video game, where he acted as the game's executive producer.

Beyonce with husband Jay-Z at New Jersey Nets v New York Knicks game

As a child he dreamed of being famous on the basketball court.

"You know the three-two-one, oh, he hits the winning shot," Jay-Z said.

"But no-one was ever on the court saying I was going to own the Knicks (another New York based basketball team).

"It's way beyond any of my wildest dreams."

The rapper was one of the key people behind the decision to move the team from New Jersey to Brooklyn and helped design the new logo.

The $1 billion (£617m) stadium features 19,000 seats and a courtside club for VIPs like Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, who regularly attends games.

It also features a three-storey HD scoreboard, one of the biggest in the NBA.

The official opening ceremony was on Monday but Jay-Z will mark the opening night with a series of live performances.

The first of his eight concerts start tomorrow night (Friday 28 September).