Lil Wayne, T-Pain fire it up for their adoring crowd at the Target Center

Part of every rapper's effort to keep up with Kanye West in the bragadocious department, Lil Wayne went and titled his roadshow that came to Target Center on Monday night the I Am Music Tour. The guy earned more Grammy nominations and sold more records than anyone else last year, so we can forgive him that one.

Turns out, the raspy-voiced, cough-syrup-loving New Orleans rapper also known as Weezy is similarly trying to keep up with Kanye in the stage production department. Both he and opener T-Pain offered a cavalcade of pyrotechnics, costume changes, dancers/strippers and stage props Monday, even including a flame thrower. Since he looked to be having as much fun as the 8,900 fans, we can forgive Wayne for all that, too.

Weezy -- the real-life Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., 26 -- was on his first arena headlining tour and made the most of it. He also brought along a crew of his many collaborators for openers, including T-Pain, Keyshia Cole and Keri Hilson, plus his own full live band, whose members were precariously hauled up and down on platforms strung to the ceiling (hope they were getting hazard pay).

After triumphantly charging the stage with "Mr. Carter," Weezy spent the next 20 minutes goofing around with T-Pain, who rolled around on a Segway as he sang his part in "Got Money." Wayne briefly got serious with the mixtape gem "Sky's the Limit" and truly sizzling versions of "Fireman" and his first solo hit, "Tha Block Is Hot." Then came a mini-set featuring a half-dozen acts on his Young Money label -- the show's version of a time-share condo pitch.

The rapper whose 2008 album ("Tha Carter III" ) went platinum its first week of release finally started showing why he's so golden an hour into the set, when Hilson joined him for the grinder "Turning' Me On," after which Weezy was left alone with his guitar for "Prostitute Flange." He didn't really play the guitar, mind you, but like a lot of the props it sure looked good. And he did finally rock in the end with "I'm Me" and "Phone Home."

T-Pain's own set featured plenty of tricks, too, as he took the title/theme of his new album "Three Ringz" to a new high (and "high" could be interpreted a couple ways). He took the stage singing "Good Life" in front of a three-ring style tent and other circus props. He soon brought out a trio of 3-foot-tall dancers and a clown-faced break dancer, turning it into one bizarre, hyper, freakshow of a performance.

How weird did T-Pain's set get? One of the biggest cheers from the crowd came when the female little-person dancer, called "Mini-Britney," did a striptease. Another head-turning/cringing moment came when a (full-sized) female dancer twirled flames and lit the tips of her spangle-covered bra on fire. Yes, you're reading that right.

T-Pain's music was weird, too. The singer/rapper unabashedly leaned heavily on Auto-Tune, the digital voice-enhancer device that fuels most of his recordings. It especially permeated "Buy U a Drank " and "Can't Believe It," and it was ultimately, unbearably grating.

Performing before T-Pain, BET reality-TV star Cole was joined by such big-name rappers as Diddy, Kanye West and Tupac. Of course, they only appeared on video screen -- a hokey gimmick that underlined Cole's formulaic rise to fame. As for her own visual spectacle on stage, the Californian R&B singer only had to wear a tight, high- and low-cut silver tap-pants outfit and sway her hips a lot. But she also showed off some genuine, powerful vocal chops in songs like the bouncy romp "Last Night" and the new, fun gem "Make Me Over."

New York rap/rock band Gym Class Heroes won over fans at the start of the show by leading them through a one-finger salute to the outgoing president and a two-finger (peace sign) salute to the new guy, one of many tributes to Barack Obama during the show.

See Lil Wayne's set list at startribune.com/poplife. Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658