Ever since the inception of hip hop culture, rappers have used their razor-sharp poetic skills accompanied by bass-heavy beats to cast a mirror across the realities of life in all its facets – be it personal, political or the subtle truths that lie between.
What defines great hip hop emcees is their power to deliver a message with equal parts style and substance. Across the genre’s 50-plus-year journey, emcees like Rakim, Ice Cube, Nas, Tupac and Eminem amongst many others have exemplified excellence in the craft of rapping.
Yet none of these artists ever claimed a Pulitzer Prize for Music – in fact no one outside of the jazz and classical world ever did until Kendrick Lamar rewrote history in 2018 with his 2017 album ‘Damn’.
Ever since the 38-year-old rap prodigy’s critically acclaimed sophomore album, 2012’s ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City’, the Compton rapper’s music career has been a remarkable triumph, with many artistic accolades, creatively ambitious albums and hugely successful world tours.
Not to mention his controversial rap battle with Drake while mastering the storytelling of American society and culture through the guise of the African-American experience.
Lamar’s rapping employs all the superb attributes the great emcees before him have accomplished: technical ability, introspective lyrics and street-wise ghetto portraiture.
A Kendrick Lamar concert is truly a cultural event in the way a Michael Jackson show at his creative peak would’ve have been. Earlier this year, 133 million viewers witnessed Lamar’s monumental Super Bowl LIX half-time show, where he dared to make a bold statement fusing social commentary with hubris backed by an incredible choreographed dance ensemble.
Lamar has been touring the globe in support of his latest LP ‘GNX’ and has emphatically arrived down under for his Grand National tour, playing big stadium concerts across the country including last night (10 December) at Allainz Stadium in Sydney, one of the last few dates on his widespread world tour.
Opening his first Sydney show in three years was ScHoolBoy Q – a fellow rapper who, like Kendrick, got his start at management and independent label Top Dawg Entertainment.
Q’s set had the early arrivals pumped up as thousands upon thousands of mostly young people poured into the stadium to witness one of modern hip hop’s greatest artists, and a concert packing everything from amazing sound, state-of-the-art multimedia production, dancers, and a larger than life entrance when Kendrick arrived onstage to the intro to ‘Wacced Out Murals’, before greeting the Sydney crowd with one of his most bass-rattling singles, ‘Squabble Up’.
You could sense the excitement and energy the crowd were emitting as the stage extended into the audience, as Kendrick and his dancers had the stadium truly ready for what would be a lengthy set list, showcasing every era of his celebrated career: early cuts, the powerhouse singles from the albums ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and ‘Damn’, fresh material from recent albums, and deep cuts for long-time fans.
Fireworks and flame throwers added to the spectacle, while Kendrick’s verses flew out of his mouth and into the microphone commanding the stadium with such conviction, expressing so much of what he’s written in an effortless way, and opening a window for the Sydney audience to glimpse the streets and spirit of Compton.
A towering, inflatable black 1987 Buick GNX, a rare American muscle car, with two gigantic black dices and a monumental staircase filled the stage; 1987 is the year Kendrick Lamar was born, and GNX the title of his latest album. It was truly a vivid representation of the Los Angeles and west coast hip hop culture, which rap icons Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre made famous in their music videos.
Between songs, the backdrop featured footage of Kendrick speaking to a therapist about his plan to disappear from the limelight in order to gain more fame as he was becoming addicted to the attention, revealing how many of his most well-known lyrics come from deep, personal reflection.
The pyrotechnics and especially the dancers gave the audience a reason to lift their phones and record all the incredible choreography and theatre. In an age where people are constantly using their phones especially at concerts, a Kendrick performance is one that gives endless possibilities of what to document.
For example, when a mysterious veil covered the front of the stage and Kendrick and his dancers disappeared, we could still see them on the big screen creating the eerie illusion of a concert within a concert.
The standout songs on the night included the Black Lives Matter protest anthem
‘Alright’, where the entire standing floor audience vigorously jumped up and down singing the chorus: “We gone be alright, do you hear, do you feel me? We gone be alright.”
As well as one of the closing numbers for the night, the staccato and frantic rhythmic track ‘TV Off’ getting the audience to shake their hips. It created a pulsating atmosphere where tens of thousands of people felt like Sydney was the epicentre of hip hop, at least for one night.
A Kendrick Lamar show is a celebration of all the elements of hip hop culture: exquisite emceeing, monstrous basslines that make speakers tremble, extraordinarily choreographed dancing, and deeply rooted in percussion and storytelling that’s sonically appealing and visually inspiring.
It’s a reminder of how hip hop is part of a ritualistic experience that has both modern and ancient attributes and will continue to be the voice of past, present and future generations.
