Saturday 15/11/08 Kanye West, Santogold @ LG Arena, Birmingham

For a man who’s tried hard over the last twelve months to restrict his feelings to an Internet blog, Kanye West has been surprisingly active in the real world over recent weeks. First, there are the two arrests – one in Los Angeles and one in Newcastle just two days ago – for alleged altercations with photographers. Then there’s the Muhammad Ali sized proclamations about being “the greatest performer of this generation” made not at one, but two press conferences in Asia and London earlier this month. And, finally, there’s tonight: the Birmingham date of his Glow in the Dark tour.

While the first two relate mostly to his impending new album ‘808s and Heartbreak’ (West was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while waiting to board a flight to go and record the project), the latter has been long over due. Until now, the rapper’s much heralded tour – hip-hop’s answer to seeing Daft Punk live - has been everywhere but the UK. Even when West made a 24-hour round trip to headline a festival in nearby Stratford-Upon-Avon over the summer he neglected, it seemed, to book a flight for his tour crew - despite organisers promise of the full shebang.

There are no such disappointments tonight. At first sight, it’s hard not to be amazed by the aesthetics of West’s set. Dazzling neon lights and a huge video screen, which boasts everything from stars to lava bursts, make the rough “alien planet” terrain look like the result of a collaboration between George Lucas and Kraftwerk. It’s copious yet strangely well balanced; two attributes, one could argue, West combines better than most.

Before the rapper takes to the stage, the sold out crowd are treated to a musician who could well be seen as West’s female equivalent: Santogold. Not only is the Brooklyn singer, aka Santi White, blessed with the rapper’s unbounded self-confidence – she too has no qualms about seeing her music go mainstream – she’s also a fiercely engaging performer. “My job is to get every single one of you guys dripping with sweat,” White says with her trademark grin before launching into ‘L.E.S Artistes’.

Along with her two backing dancers, both of whom never move in the brief pauses between songs, White cuts an imposing figure. Tonight’s she’s dressed in a very on-trend military jump suit with gold medallion buttons. But while there’s couture and a “big up for Obama”, there’s also music. ‘Say Aha’ is a thundering slice of tribalism during which White gets caught up in the moment and gyrates with her dancers. ‘Starstruck’, meanwhile, is much slower with its breathless electro grunt. Of course, White’s final card, ‘Creator’, is the one that really makes the audience perspire. It appears like an old friend: awkward at first, yet, give it a minute, and you can’t remember what you did without it. No wonder she can’t stop smiling.