Jay-Z and Eminem fill Yankee Stadium with hip-hop

Jay-Z and Eminem christened the home of the Yankees a concert venue Monday night, in a grand show of how hip-hop has grown from Bronx party music to stadium-filler.

Eminem, in the midst of a resurgence with the chart-topping album "Recovery" and the No. 1 single "Love the Way You Lie," has turned self-deprecating confessions and vindictiveness into a multiplatinum career.

Jay-Z offers the flipside, aspirational boasts and the community-building that comes from leading by example and by flaunting success. When he kicks off with pal Kanye West to declare "Run This Town," it becomes clear he has planned something special.

"This is one of the most unbelievable feelings in the world, to be from New York City and to be in Yankee Stadium tonight with my little brother 'Ye," Jay-Z said after a stunning string of duets with West, including the new singles "Power" and "Monster."

Eminem took the stage first, manically pacing as he spit out the venom of "Square Dance" and "Cleaning Out My Closet" in front of a full band and images of blood spatters and caution tape.

"It is an honor and a privilege to be sharing this stage with Jay-Z tonight," Eminem said. "I'm honored to be on this stage in the Bronx, the birthplace of -- hip-hop."

The rocking "Sing for the Moment" showed how much Eminem has improved as a performer since his stint in rehab and self-imposed hiatus. He connects to the audience now, instead of simply skulking from one corner of the stage to the other, careful to calibrate his enthusiasm to the massiveness of his surroundings.

The star-studded double-header, set to return to Yankee Stadium Tuesday night, turned into one of hip-hop's biggest shows ever. Dr. Dre made a guest appearance, including a version of the classic "Nuthin' But a G Thang," with Eminem handling Snoop Dogg's verses.

With that kind of firepower, Jay-Z and Eminem, who even teamed up for "Renegade," lived up to the promise of the Yankee Stadium show, doing for hip-hop what the Beatles show at Shea Stadium in 1965 did for rock and roll, making it impossible to question the music's power again.