Looking as if he's been styled by Mr T, and garlanded in enough bling to sink a small island, Busta Rhymes bounces on to the stage, and from the first of his trademark "Woo haa!"s we know we are in business. The tour is called The Big Bang, after his new album, and it lives up to its title.
Every ingredient for an amazing hip-hop show soon makes itself known: klaxons tooting in the audience, surprise guests charging on to the stage (those spritely chaps from the Black-Eyed Peas), call and response, beat-boxing, turntablism (both real and mimed), and a set list that plunders not only Busta's own 10 years of solo work but also every R&B hook he can find. The Pussycat Dolls moment is particularly fine, and it soon descends into a carnal cabaret, with Busta and his rapping partner Spliffstar grabbing their crotches and asking all the pussycats in the audience to miaow. Such is his charisma that we dutifully oblige.
Recent hit single Touch It proves slightly underwhelming without its all-star lineup of Missy Elliott, DMX, Lloyd Banks et al, not to mention the tap-dancing children from the video, but what Busta and Spliffstar lack in number, they make up for in energy.
Busta is also in the mood to lecture tonight, but there is no Make Poverty History spiel from this New Yorker. He is pro-weed (he lights a spliff on stage to emphasise his point), pro-loud music in cars ("What are the police gonna do? Arrest you for using the volume control?") and pro-his own genius (cue variations on the "Buy my amazing new album" theme, ad infinitum).
An agent provocateur who is not prepared to get down from his soapbox, Rhymes delights in mischief-making. Busta's Big Bang theory is about evolution, not gunfire, though his own consciousness can lag behind. His audience's rapture is tested when he divides them into dogs and bitches, and loses female fans along the way. "But I love my bitch!" he protests. "She cooks for me, cleans for me, she looks after me good!" Yawn.
· At Manchester Apollo tonight. Box office: 0870 401 8000. Then touring.
