Hip-hop shows aren’t a particularly common occurrence at the Corner Hotel, the Melbourne venue for 360’s anticipated gig. 360’s recent rise to prominence has been meteoric, but not without its detractors – his embrace of poppy hooks and EDM elements (tonight sees him rapping over various drum and bass, dub-step and electro beats) has set him aside from hip hop orthodoxy, sometimes controversially. Tedious notions of “selling out” aside, though, it’s a rise that is fairly unassailable, as tonight’s huge turnout attests.

Opening proceedings are Adelaide rappers Prime & Purpose, by far the most traditionally hip-hop of tonight’s acts. Their short set is an excellent example of hip-hop done well – Prime in particular is extremely underrated, and one of the strongest lyricists in Australian rap at the moment.

Up next is Grey Ghost, the new solo venture for Jeremedy, former frontman of Melbourne band The Melodics. His set demonstrates a keen ear for a hook and a penchant for syncopated, complex rhyme schemes – in fact, based on the double-time verse in closer Dynamite Love, it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that Grey Ghost upstages 360 in terms of pure rapping ability. His meld of hip-hop, rock and electro does, however, seem to stray a little far from the crowd’s taste at times – tellingly, the biggest response by far is reserved for Jeremedy’s version of the online phenomenon “Rappertag”, rather than any of the material from his EP.

With the audience’s anticipation now palpable, 360 finally takes the stage, backed by exuberant DJ Mat Cant. He wastes no time launching into Hammerhead, from latest album Falling & Flying, to a huge response from the capacity crowd. The crowd, for their part, show no signs of any Melbourne-audience conservatism – any sceptics (of which there don’t appear to be many) are converted rapidly, and the response never dies down, with the crowd shouting along to every line, even on the less familiar or upbeat tracks. A lot of this can be put down to 360’s charismatic stage presence – equal parts comical and imposing, he spends most of the night prowling the stage, adorned in a cap thrown on stage by a fan. The intensity of his persona is broken only by the fact that he’s clearly thrilled with the response, at times unable to suppress a broad grin.

360 is well known for his sense of humour, and he doesn’t hesitate in turning this on the audience, regretfully informing them that frequent collaborator Pez wasn’t able to join him on tour, only for Pez to emerge anyway, to rapturous cheers, mid-way through Just Got Started. Overall though, this is very much 360’s night, and guest appearances are kept fairly sparse – other than Pez, only singer Gossling makes an appearance, performing her two tracks from Falling and Flying. Given Prime’s presence on the night, though, there’s a sadly missed opportunity for he and 360 to perform their excellent remix of Frank Ocean’s Swim Good.

There’s a remarkable amount of variety across the generous set, clocking in at well over an hour – from the laid back Festival Song to the pounding electro of The Take Off. As with 360’s recent mix tapes, dub-step is a theme – tonight features Skrillex’s deafening Died this Way, alongside originals such as Hammerhead and the Fleet Foxes-sampling No Matter What I Do. Following current single Killer, 360 leaves the stage, to predictably raucous protests, before returning to close with his drum and bass-inflected remix of Tinie Tempah’s Pass Out, providing yet more evidence that there is apparently no genre he won’t rap over.

Overall, tonight’s gig makes two things clear. Firstly, 360 shares a particularly close relationship with his fans, their fierce loyalty the product of his constant social media presence and steady stream of free mix tapes. Secondly, whatever some may think of his recorded output, he puts on one hell of a live show. Between these two facts, the future’s looking pretty bright for 360 – critics may say it’s not hip hop, and perhaps it’s not, but whatever it is, it seems to be working.