A couple of years ago, Stormzy was invited to be the first unsigned rapper to appear on “Later … With Jools Holland,” a British institution of televised live music. He’d been asked to perform “Not That Deep,” one of his tough early singles, and offered instead to do something a little more polished. “I can soften it up, put on a shirt,” he recalled in an interview leading up to that performance, “and they’re like, ‘Nah, nah, nah.’”

That’s Stormzy in a nutshell: tough-talking rapper, warmhearted accommodationist. Over the last two years, he’s become one of the most visible voices in grime, England’s homegrown hip-hop offshoot, with a combination of lyrical aggression and personal modesty.

On Sunday night he had his first New York headlining show in the recently reopened Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with the J train rumbling toward Manhattan visible through the corner window behind the cramped second-floor stage. Even here, in front of a few hundred rabid fans — a raucous crowd, if not as sizable as his hometown ones — he confessed to doubt: “I’m very skeptical to come to a place like New York. I don’t know how they’re going to receive me.”

He needn’t have worried: It was a rowdy night, a combination of commanding performer, deeply knowledgeable and excitable audience, and also pent-up demand — for all of the impact grime is having in England, it remains a niche, tastemaker concern in the United States, with shows like this rare.