Lupe Fiasco is one of the rare rappers who can span hip hop’s many genres with ease. He does so with such sincerity and skill, he makes each genre his own: for the underground, backpack rappers, there is Kick/Push; for the Kanye-influenced hip poppers there’s Daydreamin; and for the gangsta-rap heads there’s The Die. And for those who just like damn fine music, there are these, and pretty much everything else the Chicago native puts his name to.

Given Lupe’s vast appeal, it was little surprise that he was able to have Melbourne’s Palace Theatre packed to the rafters and heaving. The crowd, as diverse as Lupe’s music itself, hung on his every word, pushing him to perform with ever-increasing energy. Not that he needed any encouragement. In fact, his show started at a frenetic pace, and only got crazier from there. The stage opened with his 5-piece band extolling the crowd to raise the roof in anticipation of Lupe’s entrance. As the volume rose, Lupe came flying out, and jumped straight into Kick/Push. And then stopped.

Unhappy with his mic level, he did an impromptu sound check. Once satisfied, he declared, “let’s start over!”, sauntered off stage, and it began again. A musical mulligan: band extols crowd, crowd screams, Lupe flies out, Kick, Push blares, and away we go.

Lupe’s energy was phenomenal. The dude didn’t stay still for a second. It wasn’t simply his movement that kept the momentum going, it’s the fact that when Lupe raps, he raps hard. He seemed to raise the temperature of the theatre a few degrees himself, no small feat considering the sweltering conditions inside (and big ups to the Palace staff for handing out water to the crowd; there’s plenty of good karma coming your way).

He bounced around the stage, performing Hip Hop Saved My Life, Go Go Gadget Flow and Dumb It Down in quick succession. It felt as if the crowd knew the lyrics as well as Lupe, and every chorus of every song had a thousand fans matching him word for word. By the time the hour mark rolled around, the theatre had turned into a thousand limbed, jumping, rapping sauna. So when the guitarist, a seriously big dude, unexpectedly broke out in the sweetest voice with “Daydream, I fell asleep beneath the flowers…”, the entire crowd was there with him, harmonizing the chorus as one. It was a beautiful thing.

Appropriately, it was the finale, and Lupe took his time getting through the verses. As he did his band intermittently turned out heavy rock riffs to make the most hardened metalhead’s eyes water. Not since Run DMC teamed up with Public Enemy has rap rocked this much.