If three No 1 singles in a row and an appearance on Newsnight weren’t enough proof that Dizzee Rascal has truly arrived, a prestigious invitation to perform with an orchestra at the BBC Electric Proms sealed the deal.

Dylan Mills of Bow dominated pop’s summer with his hits Bonkers and Holiday. In a Proms line-up that also includes Robbie Williams, Shirley Bassey and Smokey Robinson, right now he is the brightest star.

Used to performing with just a DJ and a fellow MC for company, at times he seemed unsure what to do with an absurdly overpopulated band that also included guitarists, a horn section, a small-scale male voice choir and Brinsley Forde of Aswad. Yet at the moments when
everyone pulled together in the same direction, their overpowering flow was irresistible.

Now in its fourth year, the Electric Proms always promises something different from the biggest names in pop and rock. Here, as has
happened too often, the string section was either underused or all but inaudible. Mills was certainly open to new things, however, offering fresh rapped lyrics to a rowdy cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, and clearly enjoying the crisp enunciations of the choir singing his introductory theme song, Jus’ a Rascal. Sporting box-fresh trainers so white they almost glowed in the dark, he said surprisingly little between songs considering what a motormouth he became when the music played.

To get through an opening flurry that included the cartoon fury of Road Rage and brand new song Live, Large ‘N’ In Charge, he must have taken an incredibly deep breath just before coming on and only inhaled again as he prowled into the slower menace of Jezebel.

It was his frantic, close to unhinged vocal style that added a tantalising edge to even his catchiest moments. Bonkers, with its believable boast: “All I care about is sex and violence/A heavy bassline is my kind of silence” illustrated its sentiments with a suitably deranged musical breakdown. The jolly Holiday still didn’t quite feel cuddly even as a Latin-style acoustic number.

This prickliness is what makes Dizzee Rascal the pop star so interesting. Quickly following disco favourite Dance Wiv Me with the queasy eastern chimes of early track Brand New Day, it was impossible to forget that he was an extraordinary teenage innovator long before he cosied up to the charts. Rather than selling out, the impression is that soon he plans to shock a bigger audience than ever.