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Boston Globe
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Kendrick Lamar and SZA gave a wall-to-wall showcase at Gillette
Lamar and SZA already proved they could handle stadium-sized crowds in February, when the pair headlined the Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Stadium shows can be a bit of a trade-off, with spectacle and sonic clarity often seeming at odds, but on Monday, each headliner's lyrics reverberated throughout the hulking stadium, even as pyrotechnics blazed and dancers in praying-mantis getups romped. Advertisement Lamar, who won a Pulitzer Prize in music for his high-concept 2017 album 'DAMN.,' fills his offerings with wordplay and knowledge, his moral clarity amping up the bravado that animates incendiary cuts like the storming 'HUMBLE.' and adds weight to introspective offerings like the restless 'Count Me Out.' SZA, whose songs, like the agitated 'Kill Bill,' possess the intimacy of bedroom pop and the vitality of show-stopping arias, grounds her withering observations on romance and womanhood in hard-won wisdom, as well as the occasional cathartic guitar solo. ('I owe everything to those terrible interactions,' she deadpanned during one of the show's interstitial videos that was set in a hostile-on-both-sides deposition.) Each set by the headliners highlighted these qualities in arresting fashion; as they paced and strode across the stage and its catwalks, whether accompanied by kinetic dance troupes or solo, they reveled in the crowd's energy and their own mastery of their chosen forms. The generous pyrotechnics only added to the lively atmosphere, whether it was the fireworks punctuating SZA's most flirtatious moments from the fizzy 'Kiss Me More' or the flames shooting up out of the stage as Lamar recounted the most vicious lines of his acid-tipped mini-epic 'euphoria.' That track was one of a few moments that recalled Lamar's 2024-defining battle with the Canadian rapper Drake, which reached its peak a little more than a year ago when Lamar released the giddy romp 'Not Like Us.' The back-and-forth between the two rappers reached its final inflection point with that relentlessly uptempo cut, which packed lessons about the slave trade and heinous accusations into a party jam. Lamar had already been a pop force, but 'Not Like Us' came to define a certain mood of 2024, and when it capped Lamar's final solo set on Monday, Gillette Stadium came unglued as the crowd attempted to keep up with Lamar's intricate, rancorous rhymes. Advertisement SZA returned to the stage for the night's final two songs, both of which appeared on Lamar's surprise-released 2024 album, 'GNX.' The gently grooving 'luther,' which notched its non-consecutive 12th week atop the American singles chart on Monday, was first, its well-deployed sample of the R&B legend Luther Vandross setting up its longing, which is romantic in the best sense: 'I just wanna see you win,' the chorus goes. The 'GNX' closer 'gloria' followed, and while SZA's microphone seemed to short out at times, Lamar's extended metaphor on his winding, still-evolving relationship with his craft served as a fitting closer to a night that plainly showed why these two artists are firmly implanted, yet hardly resting on their laurels, at American music's pinnacle. KENDRICK LAMAR AND SZA: GRAND NATIONAL TOUR With Mustard At Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Monday
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Super Bowl Halftime Performer Detained, Banned from Football Games After Protesting on Field with Palestine-Sudan Flag
A performer in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show was detained by security and banned from professional football games for life after waving a Sudanese-Palestinian flag during the performance. The National Football League confirmed to the Associated Press that the person 'will (be) banned for life from all NFL stadiums and events,' adding that 'no one involved with the production was aware of the individual's intent.' In a statement shared with PEOPLE on Monday, Feb. 10, the New Orleans Police Department said the man was ejected from the stadium but had not been arrested nor issued a summons, and therefore would not be identified. The NFL said the performer, who was part of the 400-person field cast, 'hid the item on his person and unveiled it late in the show' while standing on a Buick GNX prop, according to the AP. Related: Kendrick Lamar Brings Out Drake's Ex Serena Williams for Surprise Super Bowl Halftime Cameo but Changes 'Not Like Us' Lyrics PEOPLE has contacted the NFL for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. The 37-year-old rapper performed several of his biggest hits during his performance at the Caesers Superdome in New Orleans, including "HUMBLE." and "Squabble Up" before going into the Grammy-winning single and Drake diss track "Not Like Us.' The Philadelphia Eagles won the 2025 Super Bowl, dominating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. Read the original article on People
