Live: Kendrick Lamar at Revolution, October 28

Better Than: White girls from Oakland yelling "Gucci Gucci."

Judging by the crowd screaming "Kendrick Lamar" ten minutes before he stepped onstage as if they were calling for an encore, the up-and-coming California native is no longer a secret. The Compton MC, who has already received co-signs from fellow Westsiders the Game, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre, eased his way to the center of the stage to introduce himself and his hood by reciting, "Let bygones by bygones, but where I'm from, we buy guns and more guns to give to the young" from the Overdose mixtape introduction "The Heart Pt. 2."

With the crowd more than warmed up and ready to get the show on the

road, Kendrick made everyone put both hands up in the air. But within

seconds, eight of those fingers went down and the audience shouted out with Lamar, "Fuck

Your Ethnicity."

What should a man love more

than Patrón? Lamar knows, and he commanded the center of the

stage as he bent over, eyes closed, putting much concentration and

effort into "Pussy and Patrón," ending it with an a cappella that led

to "She Needs Me."

There may be no

better evidence of Lamar being a "good kid in a mad city" than when he

took time out to thank his mother for keeping him out of gangs and

trouble, then transitioned into the memory of a conversation he and his

father had when Lamar was 6, about becoming a somebody in life, while

his father was high on weed. 

Moments later,

after playing the roles of his mother and father in another past

conversation, another middle-finger-in-the-air favorite "ADHD," the

crowd yelling "Fuck that!" on cadence before Lamar could start the

hook. Not to be left out, Lamar paced back and forth with his head held

high and middle finger in the air. 

After Lamar

interacted with a female fan, asking her of her relationship status

and asking fans to help him rap "Alien Girl," because he could not

remember the lyrics in full, Lamar took a breather by lying down on his

back on stage to talk to the crowd about a favorite topic among rappers:

haters. A perfect setup for Lamar to chant "I'm going big," leaving

fans to finish the line with a roar of "Suck My...," well, you can finish

the line, in "The Spiteful Chant" with fellow Cali rapper Schoolboy Q

voicing his share of the load. 

In an unusual

but creative and smart way to interact with the fans, Lamar gave fans 15

seconds, on back-to-back occasions, to log onto Twitter with their

phones and tweet to his page which song they would like him to perform.

An overwhelming amount of fans did not feel they needed to as they

shouted for "Rigamortis" the first time around and "Ronald Reagan Era"

the second time. Sticking his right hand up to signal for the fans to

quiet down, Lamar gave the fans what they asked for and performed both.

The

show started to wind down with "Blowin' My High," a song that uses a

Pimp C sample from "Big Pimpin'" and gives remembrance of Aaliyah. But don't worry; Schoolboy Q jumped back out to aid Lamar and told the crowd

he has no idea why other men's women want to fornicate with him, to put

it kindly, performing the fan favorite "Michael Jordan."

And

nothing is better than for an emcee to display his skill via freestyle,

and Kendrick Lamar did so and shut the show down by delivering an a

cappella freestyle, leaving fans more than satisfied.

The crowd: When will the snapback hat fad go away? 

Personal bias: Haven't heard such lyrical ability from Killa Cali since, well... let's just say it wasn't in the 2000s. 

Wish list: Should've performed his contribution on "Temptation" and "The City."

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