You could call the rise of 27-year-old Sean Anderson, aka Big Sean, a fairytale, with Kanye West as his Lamborghini genie. After growing up on Detroit’s west side, the fractious rapper was handpicked at the age of 20 to join West’s talent-hothousing label Good Music and has spent the last seven years popping up on tracks by hip-hop’s top tier: West, Drake, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa and more.

On the hottest day of the year, he’s backed by a trio of DJ, drummer and keyboards but they’re mostly obscured, giving the impression that Big Sean is the sole performer on stage. Turns out he can sequence a show better than his mentor did at Glastonbury, rattling through a solid set that foregrounds his recent third album Dark Sky Paradise but wisely never strays too far from a hit he’s guested on.

Though most of the beats rumble with foggy menace, Big Sean’s restless physical energy, concerted efforts at audience engagement and dazzlingly white wardrobe cut through it. The booty bass judder of Dance (A$$) goes over so well he ends up playing it twice, while Open Wide, his bombastic collaboration with Calvin Harris, triggers a spontaneous rave. There are shoutouts to all the “dreamers and future billionaires” in the crowd and he dedicates the beatless, slightly slushy ballad One Man Can Change the World, to his late grandma. Phone screens, lighters and even electronic cigarettes are held aloft in tribute.

There is theatre on stage too, with a cameo by Rico, a goofy lion-headed football mascot, and after an hour of teasing, the belated entrance of Big Sean’s lean abs as he dispenses with his white tee with a Magic Mike-style flourish. His own furious, post-break-up kiss-off I Don’t Fuck With You is the late highlight, inspiring a forest of middle-finger salutes. “I guess drama makes for the best content,” he raps, suggesting West might not have much left to teach.

• At the Institute, Birmingham 2 July. Box office: 0844 844 0444.