Kendrick Lamar and SZA, pop’s hottest pair, double up at MetLife Stadium on co-headlining tour: concert review
It’s hard to come in on more of a roll than Kendrick Lamar and SZA did when they brought their Grand National Tour to MetLIfe Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Thursday night.
After all, their slow-jam joint “Luther” has spent 11 weeks and counting at No. 1, becoming the longest-running chart-topper for both artists.
Both are also touring behind hot albums — his “GNX” and her “Lana” reissue of “厂翱厂” — that were released late last year.
And of course, Lamar —fresh off of winning the Record and Song of the Year Grammys for his epic Drake diss track “Not Like Us” — headlined the Super Bowl, with SZA appearing as his special guest.
You might have expected that Lamar would headline again on this tour, with the “Kill Bill” singer essentially serving as a opening act for the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper. But this was a true co-headlining show in which the two performers alternated in separate acts, while also teaming up for some of their most notable collaborations, in a seamless flow of power-flexing.
But as much as neither of them hardly needs to sit down and be humble, there were no egos. Just two stars sharing the spotlight, shining bright in the night.
Lamar hit the stage first to the “GNX” opener “Wacced Out Murals” and quickly turned things up with “Squabble Up” and the “To Pimp a Butterfly” banger “King Kunta,” which was G-funkier than ever.
It was good to hear K-Dot dig into his earlier catalog with tracks that feel like classics now, which were missed during his Super Bowl set.
In fact, some of Lamar’s best moments came from his 2012 breakthrough “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.” “Backseat Freestyle” got the stadium rocking old-school style, and “M.A.A.D City” was smoothed out with the quiet-storm soul of Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love.” And the sequence of “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Money Trees” and “Poetic Justice” — minus Drake’s verse, of course—was a gangsta throwback for the O.G.’s.
Then there was “Alright,” Lamar’s Black Loves Matter anthem that had the crowd raising their fists in the air, regardless of their race. It was powerful to witness on a stadium magnitude.
Concertgoers might think it would be hard for SZA to keep up with Lamar. She doesn’t have one “Alright” or “Not Like Us” in her catalog. But the Jersey girl more than held her own in her home state.
Since the last time these two hit the road together — as Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates on 2018’s The Championship Tour — SZA has come a long way as a live performer. She leveled up to new heights on her “厂翱厂” Tour in 2023.
Her singing — which has never sounded better than on Thursday night — and dancing have developed into a cool, confident style that is all her own. She’s a vibe.
And the creative-direction upgrade from the “厂翱厂” Tour carried over here. Like Lamar — who has learned to use dancers and visuals to bigger stage effect without losing the core essence of who he is — SZA has figured out how to be SZA on a grander scale.
From “Ctrl” faves “Love Galore,” “The Weekend” and “Broken Clocks” — but no “Drew Barrymore” — to “厂翱厂” hits “I Hate U,” “Kill Bill” and “Snooze,” she was in complete control. So much so that she sold the less familiar “Lana” tracks at the expense of “Saturn.”
And, while surely no shade to Lamar, she even did her 2023 Drake collab “Rich Baby Daddy.”
Of course, “Not Like Us” was the moment everyone was waiting for — and it did not disappoint with dancers stepping in solidarity and colorful collages celebrating black culture. Lamar let the crowd do the rapping on the controversial “certified pedophile” lyric and the “A minor” line, and the whole stadium chanted the “they not like us” mantra in the chorus.
But on this tour — which returns to MetLife Stadium on Friday night — some of the best, most special moments were when Lamar and SZA were together. After their first duet on “30 for 30” to introduce SZA, there was an act with the two of them — including “Doves in the Wind,” “All the Stars” and “Love” — that showed just why they are the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, the Rick James and Teena Marie of their generation.
“All the Stars,” in particular, lit up the night with cell-phone flashlights as SZA and Lamar were elevated to the skies on their respective platforms during their “Black Panther” bop. With their combined star power on dazzling display, it was all the feels.
And by the end, when the late R&B legend Luther Vandross crooned “If This World Were Mine” on the “Luther” encore, it felt as if the world was theirs.
