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Jay-Z Joins Kanye West at Exclusive NYC Gig

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It was the hottest ticket in the Big Apple on Tuesday night: Kanye West performing in the Museum of Modern Art’s intimate sculpture garden for 1,000 sharply-dressed fans, including celebs like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and comedian Aziz Ansari. And Kanye didn’t disappoint, delivering an hour-long set of hits like “Gold Digger,” “Jesus Walks,” and “Flashing Lights.”

But the night’s biggest highlights came when Kanye unleashed a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go,” and brought out Jay-Z to perform “H.A.M.” (from their upcoming collaboration Watch the Throne), along with a rendition of Jay’s “Empire State of Mind.” Check out fan-shot footage here.

The hour-long show — which was billed as Party in the Garden and held after the MoMA’s fund-raiser dinner for major benefactors — also found Kanye closing out the show, as he so often does, with a personal rant, The New York Times reports. “Thank you for loving me when they told you not to love me,” he said, his voice drenched in Auto-Tune. “I’m sorry about anybody out there that had to fight for me. Do you know what it feels like to be hated, do you know what it feels like to be degraded?”

Kanye just came off a triumphant headlining performance at Coachella 2011; check out SPIN’s review here.

Kanye Covers Stevie Wonder, Performs “Hell of a Life”

Kanye and Jay-Z, “H.A.M.”