5 days ago
Kendrick Lamar and SZA deliver three-hour tour de force at Paris concert
The recent programming at Paris La Défense Arena suggests that American rap had reached gender parity. On Sunday, July 13, Mary J. Blige, the "queen of hip-hop soul" of the 1990s, shared the bill with gangsta rapper 50 Cent. Two days later, current heavyweights of rap and R&B, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, were taking to the stage together in a nearly three-hour concert.
While the two New York artists performed separately before a half-filled Arena on Sunday, it was a different story for Lamar and SZA, who designed a joint show. The two stars, whose debut albums were produced by the label Top Dawg Entertainment, had already collaborated on several tracks, including the hit "Luther," which has surpassed one billion streams. For the Grand National Tour, the artists each rap or sing for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, going back and forth and delivering a total of more than 50 songs from their repertoires. The tour, which includes 23 shows across the US and Europe, is on track to become the most profitable in hip-hop history, with over one million tickets sold. The 80,000 spots for the two Paris dates were snapped up almost instantly.
