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PATRICK SEXTON Volume 9, Issue 5 There’s something truly magnetic about watching a performer at the top of their game. They ooze a certain kind of confidence and control that other artists don’t have. Kendrick Lamar had this in spades when he graced the stage at Rod Laver Arena just before the University’s Easter break. I’d seen Kendrick once before when he opened for Eminem in 2014, and I have to say I was left disappointed (this is coming from a massive Kendrick fan, mind you). Things couldn’t have been more different this time around! The first two minutes of his performance, which consisted of him trolling the crowd by walking up to the microphone with a puzzled look on his face before walking away multiple times, set the tone for the rest of the night. Kendrick owned the stage, and he didn’t need any extravagant sets or light shows to do it. It was just him, his four-piece band and the music. Beginning with tracks from the Grammy-award winning album To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick got the eclectic crowd going with ‘For Free’ and ‘Wesley’s Theory’. Then he took us back to Good Kid, M.A.A.D City with the booming Backseat Freestyle, and from there everything took off. Kendrick makes rapping look and sound easy, and not with superficial lyrics about money, clothes and women either. I can safely say that I’ve learnt more about myself listening to Kendrick than any other artist out there (corny but true), and he doesn’t shy away from the impact his music has on people across generations and races. At every turn, the 16,000-strong crowd was lapping up everything Kendrick had to offer. The mosh pit was, as you’d expect, the leader of the pack, starting an array of chants throughout the night that lifted the energy in the room to even higher levels. Kendrick fed off that any energy, and like any great performer, gave it back in spades, making for one of the best hip hop shows I’ve ever been to. 4.5/5 stars Patrick Sexton is a second-year JD student  Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons The rest of this week’s issue of De Minimis:
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