Christian San Jose
Kendrick Lamar was one of the most respected names in rap even before he released his latest album, To Pimp a Butterfly, one of the best reviewed albums of the year, so expectations couldn’t have been higher when he headlined the Marcus Amphitheater as part of Summerfest Wednesday night. Luckily, Lamar met them, though he only performed for about an hour.
Before Lamar took the stage, rapper Schoolboy Q, a member of Top Dawg Entertainment along with Lamar, impressed the crowd with his raucous style. He was big on audience interactions, even asking for requests. Though he vocalized his distaste for some of the songs he had to perform, the audience loved it. He made frequent mention of Lamar, a longtime collaborator, even singing a few bars of “King Kunta,” one of To Pimp a Butterfly’s highlights.
When Lamar came on stage, the audience lost it. He was hard to hear over all of the cheers. The audience knew every word as he launched into “Money Trees” from Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, and Lamar was visibly impressed. His set continued with more songs from that breakthrough album. Lamar talked about how his last time in Milwaukee was right after Good Kid, m.A.A.d City came out and how he loved the energy he felt, and he wanted to recreate it. He kept encouraging the audience to get louder and to emit even more energy.
Unfortunately for those who were hoping for songs from To Pimp a Butterfly, they were few and far between. The set leaned very Good Kid, m.A.A.d City heavy, and he even included songs off his first album, Section.80. But when he did play his newer songs like “King Kunta,” “Alright” and “i,” the audience went wild. His backing band added to the songs and made them richer. He used pre-recorded backing vocals for most tracks to emulate the studio recordings.
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To the crowd’s surprise, the concert was over just about an hour after Lamar took to the stage. To say people were disappointed would be putting it lightly. People even remarked that the opener played just as long, or even longer, than Lamar. Though fans were disappointed in the length of the show, there were definitely no complaints about the immense talent Lamar displayed.
