Five days after triumphantly disproving Noel Gallagher's reactionary, hubristic and demonstrably untrue claim that hip-hop is “wrong” for Glastonbury, Jay-Z (below) inaugurated London's four-day Wireless festival in grand style. But the multimillionaire rap mogul made no mention of this teacup-storm throughout his upbeat headline set, content merely to prove the old adage that success is the best revenge. Under mostly sunny skies he turned Hyde Park into a giant multicultural party.

Even before Jay-Z arrived the festival's musical menu was strong and varied. The most exotic mix of the day came from the poet, rapper and political commentator Saul Williams. Backed by a band dressed like space vampires, the 36-year-old New Yorker delivered frenetic hybrids of glam rock, drum'n'bass, hip-hop and industrial noise. Bafflingly under-rated, Williams inhabits similar boundary-crossing sonic terrain as Tricky or Björk - indeed, he threw a stomping version of the Icelandic diva's Declare Independence into his excellent set.

As ever, Mark Ronson's spiv-suited indie-rock karaoke sounded charmless and calculated. But at least a pink-haired Lily Allen turned up to toss a spanner into his spokes, impressively botching her two guest tunes. “We didn't get a chance to rehearse that,” Ronson drawled. “Could you tell?” Other stand-out performers included East London's UK garage icon Kano, a multiple Mobo awardwinner and smooth-talking sex symbol. Meanwhile, Hot Chip, from West London, brought a winning combination of stomping disco-rock and studied geek chic.

But there was no question of who was always going to be the heavyweight champ here. From the moment he swaggered on to the stage beneath a gigantic video montage from Reservoir Dogs, Jay-Z had us at “Yo!” Wearing super-sized shades and low-key bling, the rapper toned down the booming machismo of hip-hop anthems, including 99 Problems and Big Pimpin', into family-friendly, big-band crowd pleasers. Flirting and joking with the audience, he even adapted some lyrics for local context: “London britches are falling down,” he laughed at one point, accompanied by footage of a massive Union Jack.

Jay-Z is not the most technically dazzling or stylistically adventurous of rappers, but he has undeniably moved the genre into the pop mainstream without sanitising or diminishing it. All his highly enjoyable Wireless set lacked was a guest appearance by Noel Gallagher.

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