“Keeeeeen-drick, Keeeeen-drick, Keeeen-drick.” Palpable excitement hung in the air of a packed Palace Theatre as the crowd chanted the name of the man who has spent 2012 putting the hip into hip hop. The current crown jewel of Compton has the word play, flow and hooks to blur the lines between radio-friendly and “real” hip hop. As such, attendees of the sold-out show were varied. Suburban just-legal kids, Northside dudes in expensive kicks, a handful of immaculately styled ladies and flat caps galore.
In the event of a difficult opening slot for a crowd who were itching for the main, Tuka did well, although his rhymes were a fraction of a second behind the muffled beat. Australian hip hop is very different to American hip hop. Tuka should be considered top-tier, here.
The heaving crowd rapped along to the in-between tracks spun by M-Phazes as they Tetris-packed out the front of the stage and we inched forward to be among the masses. Lamar emerged to a deafening and relentless roar, gazing dumbfounded at the crowd for no less than a full minute before declaring it “not a show – it’s a party” and guiding the audience energetically through earlier anthems like A.D.H.D., Tammy’s Song, Pussy And Patron plus his guest verse in Fuckin’ Problems, minus A$AP Rocky.
While Lamar is certainly no rookie, it was his 2012 offering good kid m.A.A.d. city that propelled him into the limelight, with the album topping credible ‘best of’ lists across a range of popular, underground and urban media. As such, it was an interesting choice to wait until nine songs deep to unleash the first track from this release, Money Trees, which had a huge reception and rap-along. Mind you, it was nothing near as gargantuan as when he next dropped Backseat Freestyle and an aggressive moshpit of sorts erupted front of stage, marking our time to climb over the side barrier we were elbowed on to and secure some personal space. He flowed through the rest of a heavy good kid set with a style that was big on audience association but low in bravado; an understated showmanship. Banter fell flat due to room size, and attempts to single out audience members were filler and soon forgotten. The best bits were when he’d take tracks to the brink of exploding before cutting the backing track and performing the final chorus as an a cappella, commanding sing-alongs galore and leaving his razor sharp lyrics hanging in the air.
There was a freestyle, a couple of call-and-responses, a shit-tonne of hands in the air and two encores – the second, a ramshackle authentic one after more chanting. It was less of a show and more of a party, as Lamar predicted. People are bat-shit about that record. On this night, they had a chance to share that with a packed room of his devoted following. It was good. Sweaty.
Live, Lamar certainly has the fabric to live up to the demonstrated lyrical prowess of his releases. Perhaps he’s one of the greats. I think it’ll last.
BY TARYN STENVEI
LOVED: Swimming Pools(Drank) was pretty fucking off tap.
HATED: Smartphones.
DRANK: (Drank).
