Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
Kendrick Lamar is taking his latest album GNX on the road next year with help from close collaborator and former TDE labelmate SZA.
Keeping his foot on the gas, the Compton rap star announced the Grand National Tour on Tuesday (December 3), a North American trek in support of his surprise project, which features multiple appearances from the SOS singer.
The 21-city arena tour kicks off on April 19 in Minneapolis, MN and wraps up on June 18 in Landover, MD, with stops in cities such as Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Chicago along the way.
The roadshow will also swing through Kendrick’s native Los Angeles and SZA’s birthplace of St. Louis, as well as the hometown of Kendrick’s fierce rival Drake, Toronto.
Presale for the Grand National Tour begins on Wednesday (December 4) at 10 a.m. via Cash App, while general tickets go on sale at the same time on Friday (December 6) through the tour’s official website.
Check out the tour poster and full dates below.
Kendrick Lamar & SZA — Grand National Tour:
Apr 19 — Minneapolis, MN & U.S. Bank Stadium
Apr 23 — Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium
Apr 26 — Dallas, TX @ AT&T Stadium
Apr 29 — Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
May 3 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium
May 5 — Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
May 8 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
May 9 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
May 12 — Foxboro, MA @ Gillette Stadium
May 17 — Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field
May 21 — Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
May 23 — Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
May 27 — Glendale, AZ @ State Farm Stadium
May 29 — San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park
May 31 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
Jun 4 — St. Louis, MO @ The Dome at America’s Center
Jun 6 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
Jun 10 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field
Jun 12 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
Jun 16 — Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
Jun 18 — Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium
The news comes hot on the heels of GNX debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with 319,000 equivalent units in its first week.
It marks Kendrick Lamar’s sixth consecutive chart-topping album following To Pimp a Butterfly, untitled unmastered., DAMN., Black Panther: The Album and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
The project’s sales tally is the biggest of any new rap album this year, eclipsing Tyler, The Creator‘s Chromakopia (299,500), Eminem‘s The Death of Slim Shady (281,000) and Future and Metro Boomin‘s We Don’t Trust You (251,000).
King Kendrick also reigns supreme on the Billboard Hot 100, occupying seven of the top 10 spots on this week’s singles chart.
“Squabble Up” sits in pole position to become Kendrick’s third number one single this year — after “Not Like Us” and “Like That” — and fifth overall.
The remaining top five spots also belong to the Pulitzer Prize winner in fellow GNX cuts “TV Off,” “Luther” with SZA, “Wacced Out Murals” and “Hey Now.”
The 2Pac-sampling “Reincarnated” and Nas-inspired “Man at the Garden” trail closely behind at number eight and nine, respectively, bringing Kendrick’s career total of Hot 100 hits to 22.
A deluxe edition of GNX has been teased by “TV Off” co-star Lefty Gunplay, who recently told Bootleg Kev: “He has some stuff in the chamber […] I know he’s got a deluxe version coming out.”
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Drake has been heavily criticized by Charlamagne Tha God over his legal action against Universal Music Group.
Speaking on The Breakfast Club on Monday (December 2), Charlamagne outlined his feelings on Drizzy’s allegations that the music giant used payola and streaming bots to boost the popularity of Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track “Not Like Us,” as well as his claim of defamation because of the song’s content.
“I told you Drake was going to sue. He is a multi-billion dollar entity; no multi-billion dollar entity is going to allow you to call him a pedophile or sex offender and not take some sort of legal action,” he began.
The radio host went on to warn that Drake could be opening a can of worms because of things he said on his own diss tracks: “The person who has the real defamation case in this situation is Kendrick’s woman [Whitney Alford], because Drake not only said Kendrick was beating on her, he said that Dave Free, Kendrick’s business partner and friend, was the real father to one of Kendrick’s kids.
“So if you’re going to accuse somebody of defamation, you must first make sure you, too, aren’t guilty of defamation. Drake saying that Kendrick defamed him is indeed the pot calling the kettle beige.”
Charlamagne continued to tear into the 6 God by branding him “Donkey of the Day” and accusing him of being a hypocrite, a sore loser and a Hip Hop outsider who “simply doesn’t understand culture.”
“There was a time when Drake was on the cover of every playlist on Spotify,” he said. “Stop acting like you haven’t been the beneficiary of record label tricknology. You being a whole ho simply because you lost.
“Simply because Kendrick Lamar kicked your ass — lyrically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Anybody acting like this is anything more than Drake’s feelings being hurt, you a ho, too. An O-V-ho to be exact.”
He added: “Drake, you’re in this position because you tapped out after you heard ‘Not Like Us.’ Kendrick dropped too much tune for your headtop […] You could’ve gone into the studio and give us a bop! But you chose not to. Kendrick won. And he told you to squabble up, not lawyer up.”
The media personality wrapped his lecture by offering Drake some advice: “Take a break, go away. Let nostalgia bring you back, people will miss you. You see what J. Cole is doing. People don’t even care he tapped out of the rap battle anymore!”
It is not yet clear if Drake intends to file a lawsuit against UMG regarding the aforementioned claims. The Toronto native has not spoken publicly on the “pre-action” legal filings or the backlash to them.
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