The lack of great hip-hop tours in recent years is a crime given that the music started with no radio airplay, no media exposure and no respect.

Performers had to take it straight to the street through performances. It was those electrifying live shows from the likes of Public Enemy and Ice Cube that built word-of-mouth, reputations and eventually careers.

A handful of the most influential rappers of the day, including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z, are in a position to change all that.

West brought the new era of live hip-hop to the Pepsi Center, with three hot opening acts and a production that rivals the biggest show Britney or Madonna ever staged.

The Glow in the Dark tour isn't an unqualified success -- at times it felt like too much of a good thing, and a late-running Sunday night show isn't kind to fans (West didn't take the stage until 10:40 p.m.). But three strong sets were capped off with a West performance that, while confusing at times, reached for ambitious new heights in live hip-hop.

The drawback to such an ambitious show is the technical side, with crew scrambling to strike sets as quickly as possible. Throughout much of N.E.R.D.'s ferocious set Pharrell Williams fought technical difficulties.

Still, his rap/rock hybrid put on a phenomenal set, previewing material from the upcoming new album with chest-rattling bass, inventive drumming and a nearly industrial style of rap.

Brain was a particular highlight in a too-short set that had the crowd screaming for more.

Rihanna was solid, with strong versions of Rehab and Umbrella, but her set was ultimately overlong, extended with standard-issue dance sequences that added nothing to the night. In the end the singer's persona wasn't strong enough to hold an arena spotlight that long.

It's too bad West didn't allow photos because the stage set defies description.

Set in a futuristic sci-fi mode where West's spaceship crash lands, he performed in front of and on top of high-tech video screens, his band hidden beneath the stage in an orchestra pit, leaving him alone on the stage with every effect available - surround-sound special effects, meteors, fog, cameras, pyrotechnics and his own unstoppable onstage energy.

Hits like "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Flashing Lights" and a revamped "Gold Digger" were huge crowd-pleasers, even if they had nothing to do with the storyline.

Detractors will look at the show as a huge West ego trip, but it's certainly one of the most fascinating hip-hop tours in recent memory.

At press time the show was scheduled to end early this morning.