Appearances can be deceptive, but it looks very much like Dizzee Rascal is having fun. The scowling teenager who made one of the most widely praised yet disturbingly bleak British debut albums hasn't exactly grown up, but the work of Dylan Mills (his real name) at last embraces the concept of humour.

He's still angry and paranoid, sometimes tiresomely so. And Dizzee is still finding his feet as a live performer: his approach - just him, a hype man and a DJ - is perhaps overly rudimentary. But tonight, some of the brittle, angry-sounding songs are actually funny.

The charmingly titled Pussyole is an elaborately layered series of knowing nods and winks: it samples Lyn Collins' Think (About It), yet evokes the first hip-hop hit, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rok's It Takes Two - not through a lack of ambition or alternatives, but to emphasise the lyric's attack on people who have little of either.

Other tracks tonight from Dizzee's new album, Maths + English, underline this subtle transformation. Da Feelin', a breakneck junglist anthem, helps root his sound in the wider context his earlier songs defied. Bubbles, an unapologetic ode to expensive sportswear, is similarly a throwback in both subject and style. It is the best thing he plays all night.

These are vital new directions live: even now, the starkly minimal debut single, I Luv U, builds walls around him, musically, thematically and lyrically. But now, by writing songs rather than constructing sounds and styles, he is allowing his listeners in, and the gig switches from one-sided lecture to participatory party.

There is a sense of release here that's palpable. Dizzee is in the process of swapping his status as poster boy for the left-field and avant garde for the trappings of mainstream hip-hop star. It is a future he clearly craves and it is one he has it in him to achieve.

· At the Junction, Cambridge (01223 511511) on June 21, then touring.