“What the fucking hell is this?” the crowd chant angrily as the in-house PA plays S Club 7. Wiley’s arrival to Lynyrd Skynyrd is then met with as many playful boos as it is cheers. However, within seconds the crowd shake off Free Bird and bounce as one to Been a While, from Wiley’s forthcoming album Godfather II.

Back With a Banger and I Call the Shots rattle the speakers and a giant circle-pit forms, filled with kids ricocheting around like sweat-drenched pinballs. The sputtering rhythms, gut-wobbling bass and skew-whiff beats collide in a way that allows Wiley to spit and twist his words with grace around them; he also stays machine-like in his precision.

The grime-meets-electro stomp of Wearing My Rolex sends the crowd into a frenzy before Wiley, who is renowned for nurturing young talent, brings up local MC Kay Rico for a potent performance. While another young MC, Stormzy, is simultaneously owning the Brit awards with a vital, political and ferocious performance, it’s impossible not to see Wiley as a facilitator of such momentous moments, given his crucial role in the creation and preservation of grime.

Even without the Brit awards though, tonight feels celebratory for the genre. Wiley is an artist who spent his youth avoiding blades, bullets and drug-dealing, fuelled by a righteous self-determination and belief that saw him selling records out the boot of his car. He closes with the punchy duo of Heatwave and JME’s Man Don’t Care, and nearly 20 years after he began, with an MBE now to his name, his reputation as the godfather of grime feels permanently cemented.

• Wiley plays O2 Institute, Birmingham, 22 February. Box office: 0844-844 0444. Then touring until 2 March.