Kendrick Lamar comes through on a new track called Computer Love. The rapper who has been busy with collaborations with other artists and receiving awards for his music craft is ready to start giving fans new music.
Celebrating a near decade of major successes since Kendrick Lamar’s first EP in 2009, the Los Angeles-based record label’s Championship Tour touched down in Toronto with the majority of its label roster, but with one glaring omission. SZA, the first lady of TDE, who announced that she’d permanently injured her vocal chords last month, did not perform, and her absence was felt in the pacing of the show.
The tour committed wholeheartedly to a sports theme: championship banners like those that hang in high school gyms framed the stage boasting of the artists’ many accolades, from Grammys and Soul Train awards to Lamar’s recent Pulitzer Prize win. Even the merch was designed to resemble jerseys.
One after another, the artists came out to play short sets, with short breaks in between as DJ Mackwop kept the crowd hyped. Each artist embodied an athlete persona. SiR was dressed in baseball gear and Jay Rock wore a basketball uniform, with their “stats” displayed on screens behind them. Like Ab-Soul before them, both artists performed quick sets, each giving a little taste of their woozy soul vibes and bombastic rapping, respectively.
Visceral and entertaining, he went through his greatest hits like King Kunta, DNA, Swimming Pools (Drank) and Alright. The screens displayed contrasting visual motifs like crackling flames and crashing waves. Somber American flags, burning trees and blurred police lights accentuated the heavy, dark content of his lyricism.