Jay-Z and Kanye West Deliver Massive Show Friday at Mohegan Sun

Kanye West wasnt kidding Friday when he said, early in his performance with Jay-Z at Mohegan Sun Arena, Weve got a lot of hits to do.

For real. West and Jay-Z covered a lot of ground, including most of their recent collaboration Watch the Throne and a staggering number of songs from their own catalogs. (See more photos here.)

Its not as if there was a lack of material to choose from. Kanye and Jay-Z are perhaps the biggest rappers on the planet, and it wasnt hard to see why during a concert that lasted more than two hours (after starting nearly two hours after the time printed on tickets) and encompassed parts of nearly 40 tunes.Together and separately, they dominated a massive stage set, which included an auxiliary platform at the back of the arena. The stage was bare, apart from three musicians on keyboards (and a live guitar once or twice) tucked discreetly at the back of the main stage, and a pair of gigantic video screens. Well, almost bare: there were cubes.

On opening song H.A.M., West took the main stage while Jay-Z bounded onto the satellite platform at the back. Each rose 20 feet above the rest of the set on a giant lighted cube that sprouted from the floor of the stage. Video footage alternated with flickering lights on the sides of each cube, as Ye and Hova swapped lyrics on the opener and Who Gon Stop Me, before the cubes receded and Jay-Z joined Kanye on the main stage for Otis.

The pair spent as much time apart as they did together on stage, which highlighted their contrasting styles. West epitomized the tortured genius on songs including Power, jets of pyro blooming in a line across the stage; Runaway, on which he ad-libbed a series of self-castiga! tions ab out being a jerk; and Heartless, a desolate song laced with Auto-Tuned vocals.

Jay-Z, on the other hand, was a picture of pure swagger and effortless charisma as he let flow dizzying rhymes on Jigga What, Jigga Who, and On to the Next One, and mimed a pregnant belly, alluding to wife Beyonc, when he delivered a line about having the hottest chick in the game on Public Service Announcement.

Their best moments, though, came as a pair and not always on songs from Watch the Throne. Jay-Z picked up where Kanye left off on Yeezys Diamonds of Sierra Leone, Kanye played the role of the nosy cop on Jay-Zs 99 Problems and Jay-Z helped with the hook on Wests Gold Digger.

Finally, West and Jay-Z brought the main set to a close with Ni**as in Paris from Watch the Throne, before returning to the stage to perform it again, followed, fittingly, by Jay-Zs Encore.