Watch: Kanye West and Jay-Z tackle 'Otis' live at the 2011 MTV VMAs

Have tickets to Jay-Z and Kanye West's sold-out "Watch the Throne" tour? Even if you don't, the pair unveiled a taste of their live show on the MTV Video Music Awards.

With pyrotechnics and smoke, Hov and Ye took to the stage to tackle "Otis," their current single and the center of their sole music video behind their "Throne" collaborative album.

The two traded versus like in the song, high-fiving the crowd at times and bouncing off each other. Naturally, their inspiration behind the song, the late Otis Redding, was unable to attend the festivities, but it was certainly a celebration of his legacy with that now-famous hook.

West took home an award for Best Collaboration Video, but not with Jay-Z: his featured spot on Katy Perry's "E.T." was enough for a Moon Man statue.

What do you think of the performance?

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

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After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.