The third album, Awfully Deep, by Rodney Smith, aka Roots Manuva, has been hailed as the British hip-hop album to wallop its US counterparts, but it is increasingly debatable whether Roots is hip-hop at all. His music is informed by New Order synthesisers, Jamaican reggae, mental illness, the West's obsession with money, and cheese. Most intriguingly, his raps were influenced by Ian Dury and Chas 'n' Dave, and nowadays he's able to deliver a live set that is almost devoid of hip-hop cliches.

Clad in white, from a distance the 32-year-old looks almost like a conventional rapper, but up close, the spangled waistcoat that makes him look like P Diddy has shades of Alf Garnett about it. Roots's big-ups are inspired by Bruce Forsyth. "Nice to see you, to see you nice," he beams. He then comically asks the audience to desist from swearing. Roots is nothing if not sincere, but the troubled savant who recently spent a spell in a institution has long gone. This post-success Roots never stops smiling, whether delivering harrowing lines such as "My brain is overheating" or rhyming "unravel" with "Jimmy Savile".

He offers sideways if not completely upside-down takes on British life, but it is not hard to imagine the US being swayed by Awfully Deep's awesome electronic rhythms and exotic references to "pints of bittah".

Success has generated a new stage show involving pillars of green light, and the band are on the button apart from a slight midset noodling lull that allows the man himself to take a breather.

When Roots comes back, he delivers a sublime Dreamy Days, and a pulverising Witness inspires a Mexican wave. In similar moments, every rap act in history has asked the crowd to "Make some noise". Roots surveys his flock, contemplates his moment, and leads an audience chant of "Splendid!"

· At the Academy, Bristol (0870 771 2000), tonight. Then touring.