I’ve held off writing anything too big time about Kendrick Lamar mostly because my feelings about him are very ambivalent. I’ve seen him live twice and he was terrible both times, just complete rubbish, the worst sort of bass bass bass heavy duty crappola, you’d epect it from 1996 at theatre at MSG when no one knew how to mi this stuff live. In 2013? It was a joke.
Also, I am pretty ambivalent on his recorded work, yeah “u”, “Swimming Pools’ “the Blacker The Berry”, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” –a handful of others, some featured raps (though absolutely not “Bad Blood”), but for the most parts I find him impenetrable. To put it another way, usually I’m sure it is them when I don’t like a band’s music, but here I think it might well be me: not unlike the first time I heard Miles Davis On The Corner, or the Beatles “Revolution # 9”, I couldn’t quite hear it.
So I’m excited to check Lamar out at the Power 105.1 annual rap fest, Barclay Center October 22 , 2015:
“Power 105.1 is bringing its annual live music event, Powerhouse 2015, to Barclays Center on Thursday, October 22. The all-star lineup includes Kendrick Lamar, Future, Big Sean, Fetty Wap, Meek Mill, Jeremih, Jidenna and Omarion.”
That’s some line up this year, I only caught the last couple of songs of Future at Governors Ball earlier this year, but it was the one set I am sorry I couldn’t catch from the start, Meek Mill has a surprisingly strong album newly released, Jidenna is the guy with “Classic man” –the remix featuring Kendrick Lamar is killer as well.
This is one of the best line ups of the season, an absolute must see.
