Roskilde Festival's premier hip-hop annoncement came in the form of Kendrick Lamar, a rapper who has climbed the ladder to stardom with his exceptional new-age LA hip-hop.
Delivering swaggering yet progressive hip-hop, his songs are heavy on bass, yet soulful in tone. On this evening, Lamar witnessed an insanely packed Arena stage filled to the brim with hip-hop heads. As the resident DJ entered the stage, the crowd went maniacal, with an overwhelming echo effect that fuelled adrenaline throughout the venue. After delivering a hard-hitting introduction of samples of both Lamar's songs and bass/trap music, Lamar entered the stage with 'Backseat Freestyle', a track constructed to portray the mind of a 16-year-old Lamar with all his dreams of money-making. Rallying on with 'P & P', Lamar's full backing band shows their worth as his trademark new-age hiphop took on an organic character.
With a surplus of energy, Lamar happily saluted the massive crowd in all corners of Arena and the audience was steadily more excited as 'Money Trees' was performed with bravo. Now usually crowd interaction should be applauded as it brings the audience closer to the performer, but not when it is at the expense of valuable set time. The amount of time spent competing with the opposite side of the venue in a scream contest ensured that the hour and a half Kendrick had to perform contained a rather thin setlist. But despite the slightly silly interuptions of crowd interaction, his performance still outweighed the negatives.
'Poetic Justice' from his succesfull major label debut good kid m.A.A.d city was a prime example of Lamar's storytelling abilities and a significant highlight of this evening's performance. The title track 'm.A.A.d city' followed, a song with a socio-critical vibe that accentuates Lamar's thoughts on his hometown of Los Angeles. The crowd were also pleased to hear that they were, according to Lamar, the loudest in his ten-year career, a claim that was believable as the noise level was ear splitting. The initial set was ended with 'Swimming Pool (Drank)' that had the crowd in the biggest singalong thus far. Kendrick Lamar is arguably one of the most interesting newer hip-hop performers and a bona fide star. His concert was one to remember though I look forward to seeing him again with a more solid setlist.
