Kendrick Lamar and SZA‘s Grand National tour was already the first all-stadium hip-hop outing of all time before it had even played a note, and the spectacle lived up to its billing last night (April 19) at its kickoff show at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The 50-plus-song extravaganza in front of some 50,000 fans found the artists performing in both solo and collaborative blocks, giving both Lamar and SZA the chance to shine on their own and to revisit their numerous collaborations together. Indeed, anyone who presumed SZA was merely the opening act may have missed the start of the show, during which Lamar performed in and around the same 1980s Buick GNX car featured during his Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show set in February.
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In the early going, the concert offered up one hit after another, from Lamar’s beloved early tracks “King Kunta” and “Element” to SZA’s “Love Galore” and “The Weekend.” The rotating set approach also allowed SZA time to change into everything from a fairy costume and fly over the stage for “Saturn” to a minidress surrounded by dancing insects during a late-show run of “Diamond Boy” and “Kill Bill.”
Collaborative highlights included “Doves in the Wind,” the Black Panther soundtrack smash “All the Stars” and the set-closing “Gloria,” which came just after the entire stadium sang along to the enduring Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
Throughout, both artists debuted songs live for the first time, with Lamar premiering “Wacced Out Murals,” “Hey Now,” “Reincarnated” and “Dodger Blue” and SZA giving the maiden performances of “30 for 30,” “Scorsese Baby Daddy” and “Kitchen.”
The Grand National tour runs through June 18 in Washington, D.C., before crossing the Atlantic for a month-plus worth of shows in Europe, concluding Aug. 9 in Stockholm.
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