23-07-2025
Kendrick Lamar and SZA review — when one artist outshines the other
Co-headlining performances are a tricky business — one of the artists is almost inevitably going to outshine the other. At Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona in June, Troye Sivan's sections during Charli XCX's headline set often felt like ad breaks.
The same was true of many of the R&B star SZA's moments during her sold-out concert with the rapper Kendrick Lamar at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Tens of thousands of fans bounced ecstatically to Lamar's meticulous, exhilarating delivery before popping out for a drink when SZA appeared. It seems her disappointing turn as Glastonbury headliner in 2024 wasn't a one-off.
It didn't help that the drums were too loud for the majority of the show, often drowning out her vocals, nor that she missed out a few of her best tracks, such as Supermodel and Prom. Her penchant for dressing as an insect is interesting (she has said that this stems from her view that 'being a person is daunting'), and there was added excitement when she flew up as a butterfly for Nobody Gets Me. I was less sure about the giant ant she sat on during Kitchen, which stayed stationary until her dancers rolled it around a bit.
She and Lamar do have one of the biggest hits in the pop canon together: the hopeful, romantic belter All the Stars, which they delivered from opposite sides of the stadium, facing each other on raised platforms.
But are they friends? When did they meet? They gave no context for their decision to tour together; even if the motive was purely financial (and it is the highest grossing co-headlining tour yet, earning $254 million on its North American leg alone), they could have dressed it up with at least a hint of a story.
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Thankfully Lamar was brilliant as ever, playing on his continuing beef with fellow rapper Drake — the latter is suing Universal Music Group for defamation over Lamar's Grammy-winning track Not Like Us — and showing cheeky video clips of him at a mock deposition between songs. The feud may be petty, but Lamar's response in music has led to some crackers: the fiery, pyrotechnic-fuelled Like That was a standout.
Of his older work, Backstreet Freestyle from 2012 was enhanced by exquisitely timed performances by his dancers, as was Money Trees and Humble. The Black Lives Matter anthem Alright hit as hard as ever.
A band on stage wouldn't have gone amiss, especially for the piano riffs in Reincarnated. But in the end, less than two weeks after Drake's underwhelming gigs at the London festival Wireless, Lamar has once again firmly established himself as the superior artist.★★★☆☆Kendrick Lamar and SZA perform at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, tonight, @timesculture to read the latest reviews
