by BostonFab! Correspondent Amara Iwuh
This past Monday, Dr. Dre’s protégé, rapper Kendrick Lamar shared his Compton flavor to the Boston area.
One thing I learned is when Hip Hop shows say they start at 7 or 8 pm, what they really mean is the main act will not come on the stage until 11:30 and if you show up early you’ll be bludgeoned with several opening acts that can be hit or miss. So, basically showing up early is not for the faint of ears. Fortunately within the plethora of misses there was a “hit” that stood out - Cambridge rapper Illicit. He was a beast at making lyrical metaphors and did a great job of engaging with the audience. He did a freestyle portion in which he chose someone from the audience to come up with random words and Illicit incorporated them in the most humorous and canny manner. Will definitely be keeping tabs on this artist!
Kendrick finally came out close to 11pm rocking Boston based brand Society hoodie while bigging up his city of Compton. He began his set with a mini skit depicting childhood lessons he learned from his parents. I was a little thrown off by the improvisation, but it showed his laid-back and comical personality. The skit led into his first song about life in Compton. He used the Kanye West’s, “Gossip,” beat and replaced the word ‘gossip’ with Compton. Not necessarily original, but effective.
After that he got right into his mix tape with “Overly Dedicated” and “Ignorance is Bliss,” which displayed the bittersweet sentiments of the streets – drugs, gang violence, murder, ignorance – the overall struggle of making it out the hood with lyrics like, “I remember being 17 wishing someone would sign me.” The next track, “P&P,” got his fans spittin’ in unison with “Free ya mind/Don’t mind s0-ciety,” which exemplifies his desire to be heard, understood, and respected for his lyrical depth and not because of society’s norms.
He went “there” with the song “HOC,” which stands for High Off Contact, which sounded like a subliminal diss to the Wiz Khalifa types that are lyrically “profound” due to drug consumption. “Am I square cause I don’t f*ck with square? Are my raps to blunt to hit the blunt?” “Alien Girl (Today With Her),” had all the ladies in the crowd feeling like they were that outer-space chick every “conscious” lyricist is looking for. He then got the audience in on the action by asking them to tweet their requests for the rest of the songs he would perform. “Cut You Off,” was the first up and exemplifies his pursuit of self and the importance of removing people from his life that spew negative energy. Next was “I Do This,” and then we asked for heavy hitter “Michael Jordan.” This was one of the first songs I’ve heard from the artist and it sounded 10x doper live. The majority of the audience knew the lyrics so we had a bit of a “rap-a-long” . He then closed the show with “Hi-Power”, and left the venue hi-.
This concert put his Beantown fans on edge for the release of his next project. Only time will tell what’s in store for this Compton phenomenon, but with an “overly dedicated” attitude, Kendrick is destined to go far.
