Kendrick Lamar morphed from rapper to preacher at New York City’s Terminal 5 on Monday night for his first show on the Kunta’s Groove Sessions tour. “Music isn’t something you can market all the motherf---in’ time,” he said. “That shit belong to you and you only.” His third studio effort, To Pimp a Butterfly, is unequivocally Lamar. A wild dance between emotionally frustrating and aggressively real, the Compton rapper's unspoken mission of the night was to unify and uplift through the universal thread of struggle.
After pre-gaming with a half-hour set from Lamar’s Top Dawg cohort Jay Rock, the TDE hoodie-clad crowd waited patiently for their rap savior. The cerulean blue decor glistened in the spotlight as a large neon sign that read “Pimps Only” was the sole centerpiece of Lamar’s simple stage setup. His four-person band put in as much work as Lamar did, bringing the grooves to life by employing every high hat and guitar riff to match Lamar’s aggressive bars. His opening line, "This dick ain't free," set the tone.
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Despite being the man of the night, the cornrowed rapper had no issue playing hype man during the crowd's sing-alongs. Cuts from his 2013 debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city -- like “Backseat Freestyle,” “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” and “Swimming Pools (Drank)" -- were instant hell-raisers and a nice salute to the album that took Lamar out of the 'hood and onto the map.
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