Here’s What Happened When Kendrick Lamar Took Over Splendour

There’s a moment early in Kendrick Lamar’s set, where the beats and his raps are in rapid fire, and the song — an incendiary ‘DNA’ — is reaching an almost frenzied intensity. And behind him, illuminating the entire stage, are two words: “Pulitzer Kenny”.

It’s a huge show of force, and it’s also a moment to take some perspective and think about just how big a deal Kendrick is in 2018. Beyond his convention-breaking Pulitzer Prize win (until then, the prize for music had been awarded almost exclusively to jazz and classical artists), Kendrick is one of the rare artists who have been able to unite the pop-cultural factions that have traditionally been at odds. His sales have been as impressive as the critical consensus, genre die-hards love him as much as pop audiences, and it hasn’t even been six years since his breakout album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.

The weight of that enthusiasm, and the expectation, could be the biggest challenge of Kendrick’s live show.

No wonder, then, that he packed the Amphitheatre more than anyone else did across the Splendour weekend — a weekend that didn’t see a lot of hip-hop, but well and truly delivered for its closing set.

And the Splendour crowd showed a huge amount of love back — it may have been a festival set, but they knew every song. Every opening beat felt like an event, all the way from mainstays like ‘King Kunta’ and ‘Backseat Freestyle’ to collaborations like Travis Scott’s ‘Goosebumps’ and Schoolboy Q’s ‘Collard Greens’.

The weight of that enthusiasm, and the expectation, could be the biggest challenge of Kendrick’s live show today. At his best, his work balances nuance with bombast better than anyone else at the moment, with songs that not only grab you, but continue to unfurl as Kendrick’s wordplay and lyricism become more familiar.

Translating that into a high-energy, hour-long festival set is difficult, and omissions needed to be made. For this tour, that meant tracks from To Pimp A Butterfly and its companion album Untitled/Unmastered were kept to a minimum — and beyond a generous selection of songs from Good Kid M.A.A.D City, the set didn’t go back any further.

Add to that stadium-show video interludes that, within a shortened set, also became a bit of a momentum breaker, and you get a sense of the challenge in meeting the many expectations of such a dedicated, broad fanbase.

Which makes it even more of a marvel that the set that he delivered was so fully-formed and crowd-pleasing. Sixteen songs flew by, focusing mostly on his new album DAMN., and there was barely a lull in energy from the stage nor the crowd.

It’s a set that somehow kept upping the energy when it seemed like it had to have peaked, all the way to a closing ‘HUMBLE.’ — first rapped a cappella by the crowd, then taken by Kendrick himself.

And with a few final words, and a promise to return, he left — the amphitheatre still packed and ready to shout more lyrics, perhaps struck by that one-hour bolt of energy, and immediately eager to do it again.

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Adam Lewis is a music booker and enthusiast from Sydney. Follow him on Twitter.

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Photo Credit: Ian Laidlaw/Splendour in the Grass