The DAMN Tour Experience

So. Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest of present time, all time, and probably a good bit of the future. Ever since I first decided to really listen to Swimming Pools beyond the hook, I realized this man has such a unique way of conveying his genius.

This won't be a long post. I just wanted to note some of the differences I've noticed in the show put on by Kendrick. I saw him a few years ago opening for Kanye West. Remember when he had that whole big ass mountain rise from the floor? That tour.

So because my friend is garbage, he likes to make us late to concerts even though we love the artist, so we missed a few of Kendricks' opening for Kanye. I did hear Backseat Freestyle and M.a.a.d. City I think. It was hype, I do remember that. I also remember it was just him and he had a decent crowd participation and all that. I know, pretty weak synopsis, but I'm old.

The DAMN tour was pretty lit from top to bottom. Like a dummy, I took the same friend so we were late again and missed one Dram song. However, we saw

him. He was a good opener. Followed by YG. Now YG, I saw him open for Logic and he had maybe 30 mins then. He killed this entire hour and I won't lie, I was surprised,but only because I just didn't know what to expect. Two notable moments for him: the strippers. They did that shit. Imagine turning a stadium into a slick strip club for a minute. I tell ya, if they had set up poles throughout the seats...next time YG. lol.

The other moment is not as fun. I don't know YG's track list like that, but the damn stadium was full of white folks screamin nigga left and right. All surrounding us. It was truly a shame and I was just like, well I'm not surprised here. Furthermore, I already know half of those people would claim to think Black Lives Matter and want to help the cause. That also happened at the Logic concert. A bunch of underage white folks screaming nigga. Smh.

After that hooplah, I was ready for the K.Dot to take the stage and he came in full force. I did my best to be "in the moment" during the show, so I tried to just record from time to time. Consequently I don't remember half of what he did because he jumped around a ton. I wanna say he opened with DNA. He hit all three recent releases, Good Kid, M.a.a.d. City, To Pimp A Butterfly, and DAMN. Please check out the video for a little rundown of the show. I got some decent clips lol.

I almost forgot about a section. Between set changes and whatnot, Kendrick had a story going on about Kung Fu Kenny (Spoiler Alert: it's really Kendrick). There were martial arts people coming out and fighting and dancing and shit. During "Pride", he had somebody holding him up in some sideways H formation while he was rapping.

Biggest takeaways from his performance. We are now convinced he's not doing his verses in one take. I can say it's a lot easier to get through a hard verse when you're not on stage. There's something about even just standing still in front of folks that you're still projecting more and may run out of breath. However, he was out of breath in the second song. I can't talk though, but I'm just saying. I also felt the energy in the room was fucking overwhelming. It didn't matter that we were so far up he'd never see us; there's just something about being in the same space as a person like that. My homie said it's church for him. I feel that. I can't wait for the next tour and he might be the only person I'll shell out money for front row seats...next time. lol.