Kendrick Lamar controversial halftime show features Serena Williams
Serena Williams joined Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl halftime show. Lamar performed his diss track “Not Like Us,” about Williams’ ex, Drake.
MINNEAPOLIS – Dissing Drake may have earned Kendrick Lamar his five latest Grammy wins, but “Not Like Us” is not the whole story.
Lamar’s well-earned victory lap is best measured by a packed stadium – a rare venue for a rapper – of 60,000 devotees enraptured by a barrage of his dynamic lyrics.
The cerebral rapper, 37, and longtime collaborative pal SZA, 35, jumpstarted The Grand National Tour, their run of 39 stadium concerts in North America and Europe, April 19 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Through 2 ½-hours and 52 songs – most of them played in full – the pair showcased how dichotomous stagecraft and differing cadences can lead to a beautiful collision.
It was a bit of a surprise that shortly after opener Mustard spun a 30-minute DJ set, the lyrics of “Wacced Out Murals” filled the stadium, a black Buick GNX engulfed in smoke rose from beneath the stage and Lamar stepped out, dovetailing into the remainder of the song with natural cool.
The staccato delivery of “Squabble Up” and stomping beat of “King Kunta” that followed suggested Lamar would perform a solo set and SZA would follow. But a couple of songs later, the Buick returned, this time covered in moss, with SZA perched atop.
She and Lamar, in an ensemble of leather, denim and a knit cap, crisscrossed the stage, swapping lyrics on “30 for 30” and strolling down parallel ramps that led to the secondary stage dubbed the Energy Floor.
This is the truest depiction of a co-headlining tour, as Lamar and SZA traded sets every few songs, his usually drenched in black and white and dimly lit and hers filled with images and costumes related to her bug fascination.
Lamar is one of the few rappers to anchor a stadium tour, but it’s a natural escalation considering a career that has yielded six albums, a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, 22 Grammy Awards – including five in February – and the most watched Super Bowl halftime performance in NFL history.
Whether sitting pensively on a set of stairs for “Euphoria” until a burst of pyro accelerated the song or roaming through a circle of sporty female dancers and spitting the rhymes of “Humble” with relentless intensity, Lamar was riveting.
His expressions of sideways grins and head shakes were spotlighted through a series of film clips shown throughout the show depicting Lamar being interrogated about the meaning of his lyrics and SZA (born Solána Imani Rowe) humorously explaining how to pronounce her stage name.
One frustrating element of Lamar’s production was difficulty seeing him in between shadowy lighting despite the Mission Control assembly of soundboards and video monitors at the back of the stadium floor.
His artsy tendencies are appreciated, but they didn’t always translate to the massive scope of a stadium production. Sometimes it would have been beneficial to witness the wind-up of “Man at the Garden” or better see his hips moving a foot ahead of him as he sashayed around the stage for the deliberate flow of “DNA.”
While the crowd loaded with teens and twentysomethings seemed to relish the moments that Lamar and SZA shared the stage, rising on hydraulic platforms during the pure pop, hip-swiveling “All the Stars” and closing the show with “Luther” and “Gloria,” there was no question which Lamar song prompted the ear-splitting screams.
Pyro accompanied the creeping synth notes that are the underbelly of “Not Like Us” and Lamar spat the wordy tale that served as the death blow in his beef with Drake. Lamar seemingly mocked Drake’s “drop drop drop” line from “Family Matters” in a video played before the song, and bowed his head while holding out the mic to let fans handle the “A minor” line, which was rendered with a roar.
In between Lamar’s fierce performances, SZA appealed to those in the crowd who were there to hear her soulful declarations of romance and endearing insecurity.
Her catalog of ballads is appealing, but SZA flourished when blasting the rock-tinged “Scorsese Baby Daddy” and the adrenalized “F2F” while romping with a throng of dancers on a stage decorated like Mad Max set in a jungle.
Her several costume changes included a green one-piece short set and knee pads and she delivered the first time we’ve seen a musician ride an animatronic ant like a horse, as SZA did with back bending glee during “Kitchen.”
There were numerous references to bugs and butterflies every time SZA commandeered the stage, and the visuals culminated when she stood center stage during “Saturn” in a towering white gown that expanded vertically, “Defying Gravity”-style, until it fell away to show her suspended midair with virtual wings against a starry backdrop like a crimson-haired Tinker Bell.
As Lamar and SZA round North America and Europe through August, they’re sure to thread changes throughout the concerts. But what the Grand National Tour proved even at its inaugural show is that there is a place where intellect, audacity and soulfulness collide – and it’s open all summer.
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