Kendrick and SZA are the anti-Beyoncé and Jay-Z

While in the USA Beyoncè and Jay-Z’s fairytale is tainted by slanderous accusations about the alleged involvement of the Carters in Diddy’s affairs (after speculation in recent weeks, in recent days Jay-Z has been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl together with the rapper, producer and entrepreneur who ended up overseas at the center of a media storm – the husband of the former Destiny’s Child has rejected all the accusations, accusing in turn the lawyer at the center of the case), there is a new empire that is preparing to see the light: it is that of Kendrick Lamar and SZA, the new king and queen of American black music which climbs the charts and speaks to the belly of the country.

A few days after the release of “GNX“, the album released surprisingly by Lamar, containing a duet with SZA on “Luther” which in the last week alone has totaled 43 million plays worldwide on Spotify, the rapper from Compton and the R&B star have announced a joint tour that will see them perform in stadiums across North America next year. They baptized him “Grand National Tour”: behind it there is an entertainment giant like Live Nation (the same company behind the two joint tours of Beyoncè and Jay-Z in 2014 and 2018, which allowed the Carter couple to gross the beauty of 362.5 million dollars). In the USA the hunt for tickets for the concert series has already started, which will start on April 19th from Minneapolis and then stop in Beyoncè’s Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Washington, A.D. The overseas media have no doubts: it will be one of the musical events of 2025, with estimated sales of over 1.5 million tickets.

Along with the Super Bowl?

A preview of the tour could arrive – or rather, it will certainly arrive – on February 9th next to Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana (a significant detail: it is the home of jazz, the first African-American genre to conquer America), when Lamar will perform during theSuper Bowl halftime showthe halftime of the final of the US professional football league championship, one of the most anticipated, followed and commented media events in the USA (this year the event was seen by 123.7 million Americans). Solána Imani Rowe, this is her real name SZA (her stage name is a mystery: “Z” stands for Zig Zag, and she has never explained what it means; “A” stands for Allah, a reference to her Muslim origins; “ S” stands for “savior”), might join him on stage for a surprise duetperhaps to retrace the various collaborations collected together over the years.

The collaborations between the two

Yes, because already before “GNX” (in addition to “Luther” SZA also appears in another track, “Gloria”) the two artists – both launched by Top Dawg Entertainmentan agency founded by Anthony Tiffith, one of the points of reference of the American rap scene, “rival”, if we can say so of Jay Z’s Roc Nation – had joined forces on more than one occasion. It was 2014 when they duetted together on “Babylon”, among the songs contained in SZA’s album “Z”.

Three years later, while his name had already ended up on everyone’s lips thanks to the masterpiece “To pimp a butterfly”, which in 2020 will become the soundtrack of the Black Lives Matter protests, Kendrick returned to appear in an album by SZA, ” Ctrl”, duetting with her colleague on “.Doves in the Wind”. In 2018, the year in which Lamar became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer for Literature with his “Damn”, being recognized by the jury of intellectuals from Columbia University in New York for his “ability to offer images that strike and capture the complexity of today’s African-American society”, their “All the stars” was instead included in the “Black Panther” soundtrack.

Two outsiders who have conquered the system

Kendrick and SZA are two outsiders who have taken over the system. “Rap music is still the most impactful genre today. And I will be there to remind the world why,” the Compton rapper said last September, when he was made official as the headliner of the Super Bowl halftime show.

“GNX – the title is inspired by the name of the car produced by the American car manufacturer Buick in 1987, the year of the artist’s birth – arrived just in time for the appointment. He who over the years has made an incredible journey of artistic maturity, raising the bar record after record and winning an incredible 17 Grammy Awards, continues to surpass himself here: .the album is a tribute to g-funk, the slow and hypnotic groove sound of Los Angeles rap, the epicenter of the West Coast. The first song, “Wacced out murals,” is a stream of consciousness that lasts more than five minutes: double, if not almost triple, the average length of songs in the TikTok era. Moreover, Lamar, whose rap is defined as “conscious”, translatable as “aware”, “mature” (in short, not forced), has on several occasions distanced himself from his colleagues, looking to the classics: the back and forth with Drakeaccused of writing catchphrases rather than rap songs, held sway on social media throughout 2024. “Reincarnated” is an imaginary dialogue with Tupac and contains a quote from his “Made Niggaz”. With his lyrics, Kendrick elevated rap, bringing the genre back to its roots by talking about racism and social tensions, but without rhetoric. His story speaks. Son of an affiliate of the Gangester Disciples criminal gang, little Kendrick witnessed murders and crimes with his own eyes in Chicago. What saved him from that reality was his passion for poetry, developed thanks to a teacher who showed him the way at school: “It took time for people to understand that this is real pain, they are real wounds, they are real stories recorded on vinyl ”, he said when they awarded him the Pulitzer for “Damn” in 2018. SZA, born in 1989, with her “SOS” became a hit in the charts in 2023, bewitching everyone with that mixture of r&b, hip hop and pop which allowed the album to win the award for “Best progressive r&b” at this year’s Grammys album,” beating 6lack, Diddy, Terrace Martin and James Fauntleroy and Janelle Monae. At the Bet Awards, the awards organized by Black Entertainment Television to celebrate African Americans in the fields of music, acting, sports and entertainment, “SOS” tied with Beyonce’s “Reinaissance” in the “Album of the Year” category, but SZA beat out Ms. Carter in the “Best Female R&B/Pop Artist” category.

Kendrick and SZA’s teaching

Their music is of inspiration for the new generations. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, SZA wore a headscarf as a teenager and said she was the victim of abuse after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Today she embodies female black power, who in her songs invites girls to arm themselves with courage and on social media does not fail to play the card of sensuality: “With my songs – she says – I want to help people find the courage to defeat their fears”. Kendrick, interviewed by SZA herself for the US magazine Harper’s Bazar, distanced himself from the toxic masculinity of rap: “If my job is to communicate – he said – I must be able to communicate with everyone. And I can’t do it solely with my masculinity”.