SAN FRANCISCO--Jay-Z [ tickets ] is a world-class egomaniac, even by gangsta-rap standards. Still, this shameless self-promoter has plenty to promote. Since the release of his debut record, "Reasonable Doubt," in 1996, the rapper born as Shawn Carter has been at the top of the hip-hop heap. His latest album, "The Blueprint," has been the top-selling record in the country for three straight weeks now.

On Friday night (10/12), Jay-Z and his extended court of Roc-A-Fella labelmates performed a highly anticipated concert at the relatively intimate Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. Based on record sales, Jay-Z should be playing large amphitheaters and arenas, not 2,000-capacity clubs. For a man who likes to think of himself as larger than life, Jay-Z sure shined in this setting. It was nothing like Jay-Z's earlier Hard Knock Life tour, which filled arenas with cool special effects, wild video segments and big opening acts like DMX. And, in many ways, it was better.

The show was like a house party. The rap concert cliches that somehow seem appropriate for the summer sheds and hockey arenas weren't needed in this smaller setting. The audience didn't get a lot of call-and-response nonsense, and didn't have to repeatedly answer such questions as "Where are my dogs at?"

After taking a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New Yorker opened his show with a solid version of his latest single, "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)." From that new ghetto anthem, Jay-Z continued to follow the "Blueprint" and hit the crowd with "Takeover," "Girls, Girls, Girls" and an especially nice version of "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)." The star put the most sweat into his newer tracks and, almost without exception, the evening's best songs came off of "Blueprint."

Rapping with regular sidemen Beanie Seagil and Memphis Bleek, Jay-Z ran the crowd through a mostly enjoyable 80-minute set of rhymes from his impressive catalog, but in one of the most annoying trends in music, Jay-Z chose quantity over quality, and filled his set with snippets of songs. Even huge numbers like "Big Pimpin"' from 1999's "The Life and Times of Shawn Carter" got shortened. It was infuriating at times.

Jay-Z delivered some fantastic freestyle moments, proving his talent for rapping at whiplash speeds. Still, the evening's best moment came with the slow "Song Cry" from the new album. These so-called rap "power ballads" can be scary things, but Jay-Z does them as good as anybody since Tupac.

Of course, what else would you expect from the self-proclaimed "eighth wonder of the world"?