Day 5 of our cultural advent calendar, in which we count down our highlights of 2022 day by day until Christmas and beyond. The first seven days are our musical favorites of the year… Today: Kendrick Lamar.
On Saturday evening this year, a legend took to the stage at the Glastonbury Festival.
He played a bloated and overall disappointing set with real hits that were barely spread across less appreciated songs from an ultimately incomplete back catalog.
But enough about Paul McCartney.
Because the next evening, at the end of Britain’s biggest music festival, another star cemented his status as one of the most urgent and powerful presences in the industry.
Kendrick Lamar‘s Glastonbury headlining set was one of the first times an audience anywhere saw him play songs from his fifth album “Mr Morale.” & & The Big Steppers’.
With a crown of thorns studded with diamonds, Lamar gave one of the most explosive sets in the history of the festival. Lamar went through hits from all periods of his career and littered the chronological set with songs from his latest offering.
Flawlessly choreographed, two troupes of dancers mechanically attracted Lamar’s attention as he delivered a perfect finale with the new album track “Savior.”
The crown of thorns encrusted with diamonds shed blood as he sang the song’s chorus, a remark on the veneer of the positive attitude of the people who surrounded his success.
“Bitch, are you happy for me? /Really, are you happy for me? /Smile in my face, but are you happy for me? /Yes, I’m on my way, are you happy for me?
When his dance group gathered around Lamar, the song ended with him making a final appeal. Roe versus Wade had just been overthrown this week and Lamar kept shouting, “They’re judging you, they’re judging Christ/Godspeed for Women’s Rights,” time and again before a sudden cut.
It’s a great summary of who Lamar has become and what his latest album stands for.
Lamar is the biggest rapper today, but with scale, he hasn’t sacrificed one iota of his politically astute poison.
I watched the Glastonbury set from my couch, but I saw Lamar in person opening his European tour at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam in October.
While Glastonbury had five songs from “Mr. Morale,” this set brought 13 songs from the new album to the stage. With the flourishing of old classics, Lamar has fully reproduced the narrative of his new album.
It’s been a while since 2017’s “Damn”, Lamar’s last full album. The opening track of this year’s album ‘United in Grief’ takes this fact into account for the day: “I’ve been through something” /One thousand, eight hundred and 55 days.
In Amsterdam, his set is once again choreographed to the max. For the album and the start of the set, Lamar appears with a ventriloquist doll. The track’s double rap bars are played by the dummy.
After Lamar’s ego analysis of “To Pimp a Butterfly” from the state of America and the spiritual anxiety of “Damn,” the new album avoids typical hits and manages to discover even more personal depths.
Nothing is outside his purview, from his relationships with his mother and father, from addiction, sexuality, fame, truth, and the pandemic. In just over an hour, “Mr. Morale” will once again prove that few people are sharp commentators for this time than Lamar.
Some of the most amazing moments are in the second half of the album, where Lamar deals with sexual violence, racism and trauma in the stripped-down “Mother I Sober” and then talks about his acceptance of his transoncle and cousin in the euphoric “Auntie Diaries.”
It’s just what is really expected of the rapper, whose last album was the first work without classical and jazz to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.
If you were worried that the lack of hits would bring an album to a standstill by losing its directness, the moment Lamar switches to the second song on his set, “N95,” and the bass drops, he undoubtedly knows how to hold the audience in his hands.
Lamar plays the Tight Wound set identically every evening of his world tour. It is an appropriate metaphor for the way he has found new depths of the real person in “Mr. Morale” and at the same time created distance from us mere mortals to the icon that Kendrick Lamar has become.
Day 5 of our cultural advent calendar, in which we count down our highlights of 2022 day by day until Christmas and beyond. The first seven days are our musical favorites of the year… Today: Kendrick Lamar.
On Saturday evening this year, a legend took to the stage at the Glastonbury Festival.
He played a bloated and overall disappointing set with real hits that were barely spread across less appreciated songs from an ultimately incomplete back catalog.
But enough about Paul McCartney.
Because the next evening, at the end of Britain’s biggest music festival, another star cemented his status as one of the most urgent and powerful presences in the industry.
Kendrick Lamar‘s Glastonbury headlining set was one of the first times an audience anywhere saw him play songs from his fifth album “Mr Morale.” & & The Big Steppers’.
With a crown of thorns studded with diamonds, Lamar gave one of the most explosive sets in the history of the festival. Lamar went through hits from all periods of his career and littered the chronological set with songs from his latest offering.
Flawlessly choreographed, two troupes of dancers mechanically attracted Lamar’s attention as he delivered a perfect finale with the new album track “Savior.”
The crown of thorns encrusted with diamonds shed blood as he sang the song’s chorus, a remark on the veneer of the positive attitude of the people who surrounded his success.
“Bitch, are you happy for me? /Really, are you happy for me? /Smile in my face, but are you happy for me? /Yes, I’m on my way, are you happy for me?
When his dance group gathered around Lamar, the song ended with him making a final appeal. Roe versus Wade had just been overthrown this week and Lamar kept shouting, “They’re judging you, they’re judging Christ/Godspeed for Women’s Rights,” time and again before a sudden cut.
It’s a great summary of who Lamar has become and what his latest album stands for.
Lamar is the biggest rapper today, but with scale, he hasn’t sacrificed one iota of his politically astute poison.
I watched the Glastonbury set from my couch, but I saw Lamar in person opening his European tour at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam in October.
While Glastonbury had five songs from “Mr. Morale,” this set brought 13 songs from the new album to the stage. With the flourishing of old classics, Lamar has fully reproduced the narrative of his new album.
It’s been a while since 2017’s “Damn”, Lamar’s last full album. The opening track of this year’s album ‘United in Grief’ takes this fact into account for the day: “I’ve been through something” /One thousand, eight hundred and 55 days.
In Amsterdam, his set is once again choreographed to the max. For the album and the start of the set, Lamar appears with a ventriloquist doll. The track’s double rap bars are played by the dummy.
After Lamar’s ego analysis of “To Pimp a Butterfly” from the state of America and the spiritual anxiety of “Damn,” the new album avoids typical hits and manages to discover even more personal depths.
Nothing is outside his purview, from his relationships with his mother and father, from addiction, sexuality, fame, truth, and the pandemic. In just over an hour, “Mr. Morale” will once again prove that few people are sharp commentators for this time than Lamar.
Some of the most amazing moments are in the second half of the album, where Lamar deals with sexual violence, racism and trauma in the stripped-down “Mother I Sober” and then talks about his acceptance of his transoncle and cousin in the euphoric “Auntie Diaries.”
It’s just what is really expected of the rapper, whose last album was the first work without classical and jazz to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.
If you were worried that the lack of hits would bring an album to a standstill by losing its directness, the moment Lamar switches to the second song on his set, “N95,” and the bass drops, he undoubtedly knows how to hold the audience in his hands.
Lamar plays the Tight Wound set identically every evening of his world tour. It is an appropriate metaphor for the way he has found new depths of the real person in “Mr. Morale” and at the same time created distance from us mere mortals to the icon that Kendrick Lamar has become.