More that a dozen years after 15-year-old Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. tottered onto the rap stage in the New Orleans group Hot Boys, the artist now known as Lil' Wayne seems poised to assume the title he has long given himself, "the greatest rapper alive."

Certainly the events of the last year have already catapulted him into the music industry elite. His sixth studio album, Tha Carter III, became one of the few bona fide hits of 2008, selling three million copies and nabbing its creator four Grammy awards. In addition, the prolific rapper achieved near ubiquity with a slew of guest shots on albums ranging from Akon to Jay-Z.

Lil' Wayne will offer a preview of his next record, the rock-oriented Rebirth during his performance at FedExForum.

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If there was one hurdle left for Lil' Wayne, it was to master the art of live performance. The bar for live hip-hop is notoriously low, with most performers content to strut across a bare stage chanting over backing tracks. But to get to that genre-transcending level of superstardom of a Diddy or a Beyoncé, Wayne would have to put on a show.

Sunday night he did just that with an intricately staged, intermittently brilliant performance before a crowd of about 6,000 at the FedEx Forum.

With a name taken from one of his numerous tattoos, the "I Am Music Tour" is Wayne's first solo arena outing. But the 26-year-old performer showed no sign of being daunted by the challenge. Wayne has gotten this far by trading on equal amounts charisma and bravura as talent, and he rightly commanded the stage with a star power that matched his video-rich, pyrotechnically-charged stage presentation.

Canny to the power of live musicians, Wayne augmented his sound this night with a hard-pounding four-piece rock band and backup singer Shanell joining DJ 4our 5ive. The band may have been a nod to Wayne's efforts to expand the scope and appeal of his music, an ambition at the heart of his upcoming "rock" record Rebirth. And if the sight of hardcore rap fans chanting along to that record's first single, the churning guitar epic "Prom Queen," is any indication, his experiment may already be a success.

But the expanded sonic palette also helped re-charge Wayne's most familiar material. Not surprisingly, tracks from Tha Carter III dominated the set list, but familiar favorites like "Got Money" and "Misunderstood" got an extra lift by being freed from the deejay's booth.

The defining trait of the performance, though, was movement. Wayne kept the pace and look of the show going at a steady clip, following up the opening salvo of recent hits with some old school selections, including his first solo hit "Tha Block Is Hot."

What followed next, predictably for an artist so well known for his team-ups, were the guest shots. Openers T-Pain and Keri Hilson joined Wayne on stage, with the former, an energetic if unremarkable performer, staying too long and the latter, a tall, flirty Mary J. Blige type, not staying nearly long enough as she slinked her way through a version of their hit collaboration "Turnin' Me On."

But it was some other special guests that marked the low point of the show; an extended showcase for artists on Wayne's Young Money label, including Mack Maine and teen sensations Lil Twist and Lil Chuckee. None of the newer artists could hold a candle to their benefactor, and their performance of "Every Girl," with eight rappers inevitably tripping over each other while the barely pubescent Twist and Chuckee creepily bumped and grinded to the pornographic rhymes, was just plain embarrassing.

Fortunately, Wayne rebounded strongly, with a tight, powerful final lap that included some of his best known songs, including "Lollipop," "Shoot Me Down," and night closer "A Milli."

When all was said and done, Wayne's two-hour set capped off more than four hours of music Sunday, including opening sets by T-Pain and Hilson, whose debut album drops Tuesday. Also on the bill was the excellent rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, a group whose diverse sound seems to provide a guidepost for the direction Wayne wants to go, and the new group Electrik Red, whose sexy take on girl group harmonies and tinny beats harkened back to the days of Vanity 6.