On a hot and steamy night outside, Kendrick Lamar‘s DAMN. Tour Kung Fu kicked its way into the Verizon Center on Friday July 21st. Aided by his alter ego Kung Fu Kenny, Lamar put on a virtuoso performance that emphatically confirmed his newly minted “Stadium Status” in the Hip-Hop world. Lamar last visited the Verizon Center in 2013 as the warm-up act for Kanye West’s Yeezus tour. Back then he was merely the undercard to the main event, and half the crowd was still in the lobby buying food and beer and socializing when he hit the stage. But not this time, a surprisingly large crowd anxiously waited for him to take the stage, and this time around the brilliance of his star power was on display for all to see.
After what seemed an interminable wait, the arena lights dimmed and the gigantic black curtain, emblazoned with the Top Dog Entertainment logo, that hid the stage finally lifted. The crowd roared when the stage was revealed, then a video began to play on the four gigantic video monitors, behind, above and to the left and right of the stage. The video was a Kung Fu feature film staring Kendrick Lamar‘s alter ego Kung Fu Kenny. This was clever and clear homage to the Wu-Tang Clan, whose name actually came from the Kung Fu film “Shaolin and Wu Tang.” In the feature, Kung Fu Kenny’s elderly Asian master urges him to go out into the world and do great things. This mildly comical Kung Fu feature continues to play episodically throughout the entire show.
Then the video monitors begin to flash one of the recurring themes from Lamar‘s new chart-topping DAMN album:
“Ain’t nobody prayin’ for me.”
Wearing a yellow tracksuit with black strips, homage, this time to Bruce Lee’s “Game of Death” costume, Lamar elevates up onto the stage from below. Armed only with a microphone, Lamar has the entire stage to himself as he dives into his first song "DNA." The near capacity crowd rises to its feet cheering full-throated as the Compton, CA Hip-Hop star rocks the mic.
“I got, I got, I got, I got
Loyalty, got royalty inside my DNA”
After the first song, Lamar is joined on stage by a sword wielding ninja. Lamar’s Kung Fu is clearly greater as he vanquished his sword wielding foe and smoothly flows into “King Kunta."
“Now I run the game got the whole world talkin', King Kunta
Everybody wanna cut the legs off him, Kunta”
By the time Lamar gets to his feature verse from "Collard Greens," a top 30 Hip-Hop hit by his TDE label mate ScHoolboy Q, he has the entire audience standing, and waving their arms and cellphones in the air like they just don’t care.
“Chidi-ching-ching could buy anything, cop that
Oh collard greens"
Then Lamar Kung Fu kicks the crowd into an even higher frenzy with "Swimming Pools (Drank)," his platinum single from his major-label debut studio album “good kid, m.A.A.d city.”
“Why you babysittin' only 2 or 3 shots?
I'm a show you how to turn it up a notch
First you get a swimming pool full of liquor, then you dive in it”
And the crowd goes wild! Lamar’s mastery of this large arena crowd is amazing to witness. He takes a mid-set break, as his two solitary dancers, one male and one female, take the stage and engage in a mock Kung Fu fight, to deft beats from the DJ. After the dancers leave the stage, the lights dim. Then out of nowhere, a spotlight blazes in the middle of the people sitting on the floor level, and suddenly and shockingly there was Kendrick, crouching like a hidden tiger on a tiny little stage in the midst of the crowd. How the heck did he do that? Was he now trying his hand at being a magician too?
Lamar does a brief set in the middle of the cheering crowd. Homage, this time goes to Kanye West and his fabulous floating stage from The Life Of Pablo Tour. His mid-crowd set was definitely a welcomed surprise for those sitting around that small stage. Moreover, his entire show came across as a very intimate affair. For 95 percent of the show he was the only one on the stage. Even his DJ had been vanquished to near obscurity off stage, near the back right corner of the stage. So for the most part it was just Kendrick and the audience, one on one. Also, he engaged the audience not only with song, but with direct conversation.
“It’s been a minute since I’ve been in DC. Ya’ll been riding with me for a while too. I remember the first time I came to DC. I played at a club, and there were only about 200 people there. But that was the livest 200 people I have ever seen.” He said in short break from the music.
Then it was back to the music as he began to build for the big close. And by that time Kung Fu Kenny had been through trial and tribulation and had defeated his arch nemesis, the Queen of snake style Kung Fu.
Kung Fu Kenny even metaphorically found paradise in the form of a beautiful girl, who emitted sunshine from between her thighs.
The energy of the crowd revved up again when Lamar rapped "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe." Then came the largest and by far the loudest ovation when he flowed into “Alright," his platinum and Grammy Award winning single from his album To Pimp a Butterfly. And the crowd really goes wild!
“We gon' be alright
Do you hear me, do you feel me? We gon' be alright”
The DAMN. Tour is Lamar’s first arena tour as a headliner, but it clearly won’t be his last. A superstar is born…
Notes: The undercard for the DAMN. Tour was Virginia native D.R.A.M. and Travis Scott. While D.R.A.M did perform his set, Travis Scott did not. Travis didn’t perform at the D.C. stop of the tour at the Verizon Center on Friday night. When it was announced that he was a no-show, fans clearly weren’t pleased. However, Scott did have had a legitimate reason not to be there. His body guard and friend, Big Tony, reportedly passed away on the night of the concert.
