Powered by a No. 1 album and a Grammy Award-winning diss track, Kendrick Lamar’s stadium tour has become the new standard for rap shows.
Two sold-out nights in Toronto. On June 12 and 13, Kendrick Lamar and SZA brought their Grand National Tour to the Rogers Centre in Drake’s hometown. What’s more? K.Dot became the FIRST rapper to sell out multiple shows at the city’s biggest venue.
What happens when you earn another decisive win on a victory lap? Do you just have to keep running? This is more than icing on the cake for a beef that has had decisive end points on multiple occasions. It’s a whole second dessert. This is like being given apple pie à la Mode just moments after devouring a tiramisu. The 6 was supposed to be insulated from this feud, the place where Drake could still reign supreme regardless of what the rest of the world was saying.
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What ended up happening? Toronto natives requested a second performance of “Not Like Us,” which had to be more gratifying for Kendrick than performing your diss track that went No. 1 on the Hot 100 performed during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. While Kendrick and SZA’s nationwide jaunt has been about so much more than “Not Like Us,” there are occasional reminders that this tour comes during the culmination of the biggest moment in Kendrick’s career. Despite dropping one of the best Cali rap albums of all time with good kid m.A.A.d city, a generational socio-political statement with To Pimp a Butterfly, and a bevy of other canonical projects, “Not Like Us” has become the defining moment of K.Dot’s career … for now. It earned Lamar five Grammy Awards and quickly became the most commercially successful single of his career. Drake accused Kendrick of hitting his wife and being unable to write hits on “Family Matters.” Lamar responded by writing his most successful song to date and calling Drake a pedophile. Game, set, match. The Grand National Tour, though, aims to make “Not Like Us” just another part of the show, not any different from other hits like “Swimming Pools (Drank),” “King Kunta,” or “HUMBLE.”
It’s this idea that has made the tour so successful and so generationally special. Kendrick is at the peak of his powers and the height of his popularity, but the catalog is what defines his career. No one else in rap has so many hits and is in their prime. Drake comes close, but he doesn’t have the pound-for-pound lyrical weight K.Dot does. Weezy is up there, but would anyone suggest he’s truly in his prime? The Grand National Tour is the rare opportunity to see an artist at the very top of their game. It’s what makes the setup of the tour all the more interesting. Linking up with SZA as a co-headliner means he’s willing to cede the stage for half the night. Kendrick’s catalog is buoyed by his desire to put on the greatest show possible.
This was achieved in part by Kendrick’s decision to link up with SZA and make his first GNX tour a co-headlining run. Not only does it make the entire enterprise nearly twice as big, it makes each show feel celebratory instead of vindictive. Kendrick dancing on Drake’s grave is just one part of the show. SZA takes center stage for half of each night. “Not Like Us” earning requests for an encore in Toronto — or Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh apologizing after being caught at the concert — simply becomes one part of the spectacle. The Grand National Tour has come to be so much more than another way for Kendrick to publicly humiliate Drake. Sure, there’s some of that each night, but after living in the spotlight off of that one moment alone, K.Dot is recentering the way he demands to be seen.
Sure, Lamar saves “Not Like Us” for the end of each show, allowing fans to wait all night for that infamous synth melody to get cued up, but skipping toward the end means you’re cruising past two artists in their prime running through some of the best rap and R&B songs of the past 20 years. While it’s easy to view The Grand National Tour as one last worldwide Drake taunt, the run has proven itself to be something far more impressive. Lamar and SZA have set the bar by which all future superstar rap tours will be judged. It’s moved the most tickets, and it’s kept the culture’s attention. The “Grand National Tour” focuses on Lamar and SZA’s rich, seemingly limitless discographies—instead of a moment that is awesome and provocative, yes, but fleeting. Kendrick Lamar is infinitely more than “Not Like Us.” That’s the scary part.
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