SZA And Kendrick Lamar Bring The Grand National Tour To Homebase, Nourishing The Soil Where West Coast Hip Hop Blossoms

On Friday, May 23rd, the Grand National Tour had its second stop at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. At homebase for Kendrick Lamar, the TDE alum co-headlined the tour with labelmate SZA. The three sold-out shows are achieving new heights for both artists who each released successful 2024 LPs. Their stadium run includes an international circuit of 39 shows as Lamar returns to the basics of rap with the GNX album, and SZA gravitates towards an uncharted far-out land with her reinvention of the SOS deluxe: Lana.

SZA and Kendrick Lamar at the final stop of the Grand National Tour.

DJ Mustard spun new-age club classics a part of his dance catalog, preceding Kendrick Lamar and SZA opening the show with dramatic cuts from a short film shot in Los Angeles. Mariachi singer Deyra Barrera’s vocals soar sky-high, and white Chicano style typography etches into the black jumbotron screen to kick off the show. The first Spanish verses of GNX’s “wacced out murals,” fill the stadium, and the crowd becomes thunderous as moments lead up to a lyrical prophet, Lamar, exiting a 1987 Buick GNX car that emerges from underneath the stage. 

“Squabble Up” doused gasoline on the crowd’s fiery response to witnessing one of the greatest wordsmiths perform a body of work that reflects their musical spirit with fervor and grace. OG Los Angeles dance moves were visible on the grainy black-and-white screen to pay respects to the West Coast city that birthed Kendrick Lamar’s heritage in hip hop. Abruptly after, the “TV off” sequence is supported by a line of Black dancers, dressed in baggy clothes, who are backing up Kendrick Lamar’s godlike gangster stance.

The GNX car makes several appearances and is a cultural motif throughout the Grand National Tour and Lamar’s GNX album visual concept, alluding to the times Kendrick Lamar grew up in Compton and the memories inside the vehicle that raised him and many in his local community. The show included 17 songs with fresh renditions of old tracks by Lamar and SZA. During his performance, he had no backtrack, fronting his uncanny breath control by reciting long-winded verses from his mouth releasing his raspy tone. Lamar performed tracks from 2012 to 2015 onward, “King Kunta” came with concrete monuments that immortalized hip hop culture, and he rapped an extraordinary a cappella to “Money Trees.”

Within the duet performance, each artist has a pre-directed segment where they sit down in front of a VHS-style camera and get interrogated by an interviewer about their artistic identity.  Lamar’s first sequence questions whether people should take him as a threat or if his artistic spirit as a savior should be perceived metaphorically, and he responds with “whatever you want to take it.” This stripped-down front of Kendrick Lamar for GNX felt wildly different compared to his past Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers arena tour in 2022. Instead of exposing his most personal life this album cycle, he bears the weight of reviving the classical nature of hip hop, protecting its legacy from conforming to a current world that doesn’t nourish its roots.

SZA is introduced smoking a joint with a smile that stretches so wide that it makes you learn why she has such a supportive fanbase since her 2017 album, CTRL. SZA visually dials up her affinity to nymphs and nature. She performs the extended iteration of SOS, LANA’s “30 for 30,” being raised up in a GNX covered in foliage wearing a custom Chrome Hearts leather look and bouncy ruby, violet curls. This cracks open the concrete wall behind the artist, SZA, ethereally sings as the garden behind her blooms with pink flowers for a choreographed performance of “The Weekend.” “Broken Clocks” crumbles the rock-solid material more and unearths greenery kissed by the orange light of a sunset, insects fly, and organics swirl to metaphorically support the ideaology that natural beauty is always at the soil or source, whether that is the landscape of concrete jungles where hip hop was born or humanity itself. 

Kendrick Lamar at the final stop on the Grand National Tour

Within a scene of the concert short film, the themes of the Grand National Tour are spoken by musician, Annahstasia Enuke, who says “love and hate go hand-in-hand” while nestled in Lamar’s arms inside a GNX. Then, the moment cuts to Lamar rapping “Euphoria” as he walks down tall concrete steps next to a street lamp, appearing as a Roman emperor coming down to address his people. “Lies about me” and “truth about you” are centered on the screen in red letters to remind the audience of how rawness and transparency are a part of the story of hip hop. His dangling “X” chain slings back and forth as he catches his breath to spit out a flow that makes him seem self-possessed by conscious rappers who came before him. SZA and Kendrick Lamar closed the nearly 3-hour show with “Gloria,” and their collective onstage performances mirrored the global stature and synergy of artists — Beyoncé and Jay-Z delivering for their On The Run mega-tour in 2014. 

SZA sang “Good Days,” “Blind,” and “Crybaby” live with her delicate, sweet-sounding vocals. A surprise followed with “Snooze” being performed by her and Justin Bieber, the stadium vibrated by fans screaming with eagerness. SZA ascended as a fairy, danced on an ant, and performed next to a praying mantis, which spiritually symbolizes peace and good fortune. Kendrick Lamar performs “Not Like Us” with pyrotechnics and a military arrangement of dancers who ramp up the energy from the crowd before the stadium tremors into a self-induced earthquake caused by “A Minor” shouted in total unison. With each artist’s TDE lineage, Kendrick Lamar and SZA maintain the dynamics shared between sensei and star pupil. The rapping sensei and musical monk have a metaphysical connection, and the Grand National Tour is a shared offering on display that sanctifies Black culture and the roots of our community.