Kendrick Lamar

[Matt42]

To all those who doubted he’d pull a crowd, I think he got a bigger crowd than Biilie.

He did what Kanye should have done. He went all out. It was probably my favourite headline set of the weekend.

Said in other threads that the second half of Macca will go down in history, but I must mark Macca down for that shoddy first hour.

[FuzzyDunlop]

Took 2 mates who'd never heard of him before. All of us really enjoyed it. We were prob half way back & there was a lot of room.

Weird end though, we thought the mic cut out. Everyone around us expected it to carry on for an encore. Speaking to someone in a food queue, apparently he threw the mic, but it didnt translate further back 

Humble should have ended it, the ending felt flat from where we were... otherwise, excellent.

[BlueDaze]

I am an old bloke, sitting at home ticketless for the first time since my first visit in 2007.

I wouldn’t know Kendrick Lamar from a kick up the arse… and had no intention of watching tonight.. but the lack of viable options made me give it a go.

wow! What a polished performance.. I went to see Kanye out of curiosity but this fella is a country mile better… simple staging, great choreography and perfect tempo… the crowd absolutely lapped it up.

[Reckoner]

The King

[sisco]

37 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

To all those who doubted he’d pull a crowd, I think he got a bigger crowd than Biilie.

He did what Kanye should have done. He went all out. It was probably my favourite headline set of the weekend.

Said in other threads that the second half of Macca will go down in history, but I must mark Macca down for that shoddy first hour.

First half of Macca was certainly aimed at his fans rather than Beatle fans.  Last 90 mins was the best I’ve ever personally seen at the pyramid in my 7 Visits.  Very special 

[Matt42]

24 minutes ago, sisco said:

First half of Macca was certainly aimed at his fans rather than Beatle fans.  Last 90 mins was the best I’ve ever personally seen at the pyramid in my 7 Visits.  Very special 

Exactly - felt like two completely different sets in one.

[Suprefan]

Where are the Kendrick haters lol. On behalf of the city of LA for giving ya'll 2 headliners this year, you're welcome.

[Zoo Music Girl]

49 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

Took 2 mates who'd never heard of him before. All of us really enjoyed it. We were prob half way back & there was a lot of room.

Weird end though, we thought the mic cut out. Everyone around us expected it to carry on for an encore. Speaking to someone in a food queue, apparently he threw the mic, but it didnt translate further back 

Humble should have ended it, the ending felt flat from where we were... otherwise, excellent.

Watch the ending back on TV! It gave me chills. He was shouting "godspeed for women's rights" and then just threw the mike and walked off. Unbelievably powerful.

Barely know him and watching from home and absolutely loved the whole thing.

[Zoo Music Girl]

 

[internetjef]

That was absolutely incredible . First half in particular. Up there with the best performances I have seen in my 10+ times at the festival.

Even a mate who tagged along knowing only a song or two beforehand was blown away 

[Rose-Colored Boy]

5 hours ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

 

Did wonder what he was doing when he chose to go all pro-evangelicalism on this weekend of all weekends. thank god (pun not intended) the end of it went in this direction. Phenomenal. 

[Johndenis]

There was no shadow boxing from Kendrick, he rolled out all his biggest songs. Imo he has 5 or 6 truly great ones. He absolutely nailed the delivery. Technically amazing. 

I thought he had a live band, so I was a bit surprised to see dancers and lights. I always prefer a band. But as noted by another posted above, as a spectacle he was far better than Kanye (which is an obvious act to compare him with). 

I'm definitely conflicted though.  Just for example, I think "Element" is about committing to still do properly things that he doesn't like. But the chorus is about slapping pussy assed n-words, making it look sexy etc. Makes me wince. Choruses of "fuck it, fuck it, fuck it" make me wince too. Maybe that's the point. 

Happy to discuss as I appreciate there's a few folk on here who think he is a stevie wonder type talent. I don't hear it myself. 

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Pretty sure he did have a live band, or at least a live drummer. You could hear quite clear differences to the recordings on some of the songs. 

[Johndenis]

5 minutes ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Pretty sure he did have a live band, or at least a live drummer. You could hear quite clear differences to the recordings on some of the songs. 

I thought some of them sounded like they had - less drums? I didn't know if that was to help make him easier to hear. Don't know. 

[Alvoram]

Wasn’t a Kendrick fan, prefer a LOT of other hiphop artists to him. Wasn’t even going to see him…

But my god I’m glad I did, that was the most polished live hiphop performance I’ve ever seen in my life, whether in person or on tv!!! What a talent.

That ending though, strong message and no fuss!!!

[FuzzyDunlop]

7 hours ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Watch the ending back on TV! It gave me chills. He was shouting "godspeed for women's rights" and then just threw the mike and walked off. Unbelievably powerful.

Barely know him and watching from home and absolutely loved the whole thing.

We knew what he was saying, but further back it was if it the mic cut out & he stormed off. I'm pleased it wasn't that! 

Looking forward to seeing it on TV

[Zoo Music Girl]

10 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

We knew what he was saying, but further back it was if it the mic cut out & he stormed off. I'm pleased it wasn't that! 

Looking forward to seeing it on TV

Yeah it was definitely intentional! The whole performance looks incredible on TV.

[kalifire]

55 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

I wished more male acts had spoke up.

Totally agree. 

[s30foster]

Feck me what a set!! I got home only a few hours ago and am already rewatching. Absolutely nailed it! 

[lighthouse]

1 minute ago, s30foster said:

Feck me what a set!! I got home only a few hours ago and am already rewatching. Absolutely nailed it! 

Where can you rewatch it? This show has already gone viral but can't watch the full thing. 

[JSmurphy]

Insanely good.

[Peroni]

25 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Where can you rewatch it? This show has already gone viral but can't watch the full thing. 

The BBC Iplayer?

[Rose-Colored Boy]

28 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Where can you rewatch it? This show has already gone viral but can't watch the full thing. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0cg05dl

[KPSandwiches]

So glad to be in the crowd for this. Amazing set that feels like we'll be referring back to it for years. 

[NorthernSoul52]

Wasn't half-bad that, was it? 

Always been more ambivalent about Kendrick than perhaps his reputation deserves - an emotion that stems from a disappointing Leeds Festival 2015 set where the energy really didn't translate and the sound felt particularly reedy. 

That was an excellent spot of theatre though, positively electric in parts. Interesting that the two most thrilling Pyramid headliners of the past dozen or so have been him and Stormzy. Rap and its associated genres might be fixed for a headliner per year now, if they keep finding jackpot performers like them.