Kendrick and Sza in Rome: two giants in the midst of many dwarfs (and dwarfs)

“Siento aquí you present, the noche de anoche”: the rumor that resonates from the speakers of the Olympic stadium is that of a Latin singer. But what is about to go on stage in front of the 58 thousand spectators who filled the parterre and the stands of the Roman Arena is not properly the show of a Latin Pop star. The singer is the Mexican Deyra Barrera: at the Olimpico there is not. Kendrick Lamar wanted her as a guest of her latest album “Gnx” to pay homage to the Latin roots of Los Angeles and therefore the West Coast, central in the tracks that make up the disc. The prophet of contemporary American rap is hidden in the car in the center of the stage. Not just any car: it is precisely that, style icon, produced by the US car manufacturer Buick in 1987, the year of birth of the rapper, who inspired the title of the album released last autumn. “YesTerday Somebody Whacked Out My Mural,” he whispers just in the first song in the lineup, with its unmistakable flowthen descending from the car and finally presenting herself in front of 58 thousand paying, while behind it they rise, very high, of the giant flames. It started like this yesterday, The only Italian concert of Kendrick Lamar and Sza’s “Grand National Tour”the (artistic) couple who has reported relevance in the Black Music to stars and contemporary stripes. Last July 2, in Cologne, before making a stop in Frankfurt, Glasgow, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Nanterre, Cardiff, London, Lisbon and Barcelona, landed in Europe, the tour also arrived in Italy for an evening epic. Who repaid the high expectations of the fans.

The first time of Kendrick in Rome and that of Sza in Italy

The Romans had never seen Kendrick in action in the capital: For his previous incursions in the Bel Paese, the Compon rapper had chosen Milan twice (in 2013 at the General Warehouses, when he was still almost unknown; in 2022 at the Snai San Siro hippodrome) and once Verona (in 2023 he performed on the stage of the Arena of the Scaliger city). Last night was his first concert in the Eternal City. For Sza, however, it was an absolute debut in Italy. Sold out tickets for some time: the cheapest, to see the two with binoculars, cost 74.75 euros; The most expensive ones cost 172.50 euros, as much as the fans spent to stay in the “Golden Circle”, the “hole” in the middle of the circular stage of the stage. Kendrick thought about breaking the ice, between flames, in fact, and fireworks: between “Wacked Out Murals”, “Squabble Up” and “Tv off”, three of the songs contained in “Gnx”, the 38 -year -old award -winning artist did not fail to dust off “King Kunta“, One of the songs taken from” To Pimp A Butterfly “, the album that in 2015 allowed him to agree critical and public and to leave A very deep sign in the history of contemporary musiccombining jazz and rap to tell the dark sides of American society, from racism institutionalized to the abuse of power by the agents, passing through the way the way in which the media – especially the conservative ones – deal with episodes that involve young people of the African American communities. Szareal name Solana Imani Rowe, 35 years old, reached him on “30 for 30“, Before taking the public for himself with a handful of songs taken from his repertoire, from” Love Galore “to” Broken Clocks “, passing through” The Weekend “.

Black pride

Together they celebrated theirs Being real outsiders in the era of rappers who forget their origins (and those of the genre: true drake?) And of the stars all sexy ballets and provocations of various kinds. You don’t win a Pulitzer prize at random. When in 2018 the jury of Intellectuals of Columbia University in New York assigned Kendrick Lamar the cleaning for music, the first non -classic and not jazz artist to receive that recognition, recognized the artist the “ability to capture the complexity of African American society”. Sza, on the other hand, winking at the atmospheres and sounds of the US black music of the early 2000s went to fill a void, in a market saturated with patin and well -packaged ultrapop proposals: well packaged: In 2023 Billboard, the “Bible” of the American Music Biz, awarded her the prize as “Woman of the year”, before her went to Madonna, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swiftwith the merit of “having challenged the genres” and brought to the charts “raw and powerful songs”. On the eve of the European Lege Billboard has made it known that With 256.5 million dollars collected only with the dates in the USA from April to June (221.2 million euros), that of Kendrick and Sza has become the most profitable couple tour.: beaten and Beyoncé and Jay-Zwhich in the Run II in 2018 embodied $ 253.5 million.

Two giants in the midst of garden dwarfs

Who expected from Kendrick new arrows addressed to rival Drakehe was satisfied: Lamar reserved for him first on “Euphoria”, accusing him of “writing embarrassing things”, then, later, on that “Not like us” that a year ago started the dissing between the two. Small curiosity: in the past, Sza had a story with the rapper of “Hotline Bing” and in the video of “Kill Bill”, a tribute to Quentin Tarantino, imagined to kill a former unfaithful who for some responded to the name of Drake. Yesterday in his set Sza did not fail to sing it, in addition to the various “Nobody Gets Me”, “Good Days”, “I hate u”, displacing everyone also with a cover of “Rich Baby Daddy” by Drake. Kendrick, behind the scenes, will have pretended nothing: Lamar has reached Sza on “All the stars“, The song, which became a hymn of the Black pride, which the two engraved in 2018 for the soundtrack of the film” Black Panther “. They sang it together on two platforms several meters high, while the stands turned into an infinite expanse of flash. The photograph of a triumphant show, the feeling of being a few meters from two giants in the middle of many, too many, dwarfs and garden dwarfs.

Scaletta:
Laminar

Wacch Out Murals
Squabble up
King Kunta
Element.
TV off
Lamar and Sza

30 for 30
Sza

Love Galore
Broken Clocks
The Weekend
Laminar

Euphoria
Hey Now
Reincarnated
Humble.
Backseat freestyle
Family Ties
Swimming Pools
Maad City
ALIGHT
Man at the Garden
Sza

Scorsese Baby Daddy
F2F
Garden (Say It Like Dat)
Kitchen
Blind
Consideration
Low
Lamar and Sza

Doves in the Wind
All the stars
Love.
Laminar

Dodger Blue
peekaboo
Like that
DNA.
Good Credit
Count Me Out / Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe
Money Trees
Poetic justice
Sza

I hate u
Shirt
Kill Bill
Snooze
Open Arms
Nobody Gets me
Good days
Rich Baby Daddy
BMF
Kiss me more
Laminar

Heart pt. 6 / Bodies
N95
TV off
Not like us
Lamar and Sza

luther
glory