Jay-Z, right, and Kanye West during their Watch the Throne Tour performance at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Nov. 23, 2011.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Jay-Z & Kanye West At the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Wednesday
Jay-Z and Kanye West are both renowned for their braggadocio, so of course the self-declared rap royals would dub their album-length collaboration Watch the Throne.
Part of the reason royalty has always resonated so strongly is the inherent drama of an eventual overthrow, but their sold-out performance Wednesday night in Toronto proved that two kings can, in fact, occupy the same throne.
Hip-hop is not known for great live performances, at least not on an arena-size scale. But without the aid of a band or backup dancers or even singers to croon the pair's plentiful R&B guest-hooks, the two master MCs kept the crowd rapt throughout a 2½-hour performance thanks to unstoppable charisma, impeccable sound and a barrage of lasers and pyro and raised throne-like stages that gave the show an occasional epic boost.
Their collaboration as "The Throne," delivered tag-team style like a latter-day Run-DMC, certainly got the crowd riled up. The duo's setlist ranged from the three (!) run-throughs of fan favourite Niggas in Paris and soul-drenched single Otis to the gothic horror of Monster and seated show-stopper New Day, in which both men rapped to their unborn sons, a moment which obviously had great meaning for Jay-Z who is currently expecting his first child with superstar bride Beyonce.
What sounded callously ostentatious on the Watch the Throne record, what with their endless rhymes about jewellery, fashion, groupies and "my other other Benz," came off instead as casual triumphalism onstage where the words matter less than how you spit them.
But what will make this tour go down as one of the all-time greats is the realization of just how many hits the pair can roll out at this stage of their careers. Alternating their collabs with short solo sets, Jay-Z dipped all the way back to his 1997 street banger Where I'm From while Kanye offered up his Grammy-nominated breakthrough 2004 single All Falls Down.
From there it was like a post-millennial hip-hop history lesson — Kanye's autuned jaw-droppers Runaway and Heartless, arena rockers Power and Stronger and epic passion play Jesus Walks; Jay's unlikely pop smashes Hard Knock Life and Big Pimpin', legend-making 99 Problems and PSA and hometown anthem Empire State of Mind.
Jay-Z may be the elder statesmen here — at one point Kanye gushed about fulfilling his dream of performing alongside his "idol," the man who made his career by hiring him to beatsmith the bulk of his 2001 crossover classic The Blueprint — but West offered up heart-on-sleeve artistry, superior songwriting and an Axl Rose-inspired black leather kilt as a perfect counterbalance to Jay's cool-as-ice swagger, unparalleled delivery and a black Yankees cap.
So perhaps the trick to sharing the throne is to rule different sides of the kingdom while occasionally joining forces for a jubilant joint celebration.