After hosting a sold-out show by one of the two biggest new names in hip-hop on Friday night, Xcel Energy Center kicked off Monday by announcing an Aug. 19 date with hip-hop's other big, young boss, Kendrick Lamar. Tickets for the Los Angeles rapper's show go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for $39.50-$99.50 through Ticketmaster or the St. Paul arena's box office, with pre-sale offers beginning Thursday.
There's pent-up anticipation to see Lamar in Minnesota. He didn't come here on his prior tour for his groundbreaking, Grammy-nominated 2015 album, "To Pimp a Butterfly." And that's after Twin Cities fans got in early on the Kendrick kick when he appeared at the Soundset festival in 2012. The Dr. Dre-mentored Lamar, then only 24, hinted at how prolific he would be in a Star Tribune interview before that 2012 appearance, when he said, "I have so many ideas, I just keep going and am continually recording. I'll probably just keep going until somebody finally presses stop."
Lamar surprised the industry Beyonce-style by dropping his latest record "DAMN." with very little warning or pre-promotion on April 14. The record nonetheless shot to No. 1 in Billboard on the strength of 353,000 album sales and 340 million streams. It also marked a stylistic shift for Lamar, who carved out an innovative, neo-soul/psychedelic sound on "Butterfly" but went back to more classic-sounding, bass-booming bangers on "DAMN." The juxtaposition of the two albums should make for quite a wild concert.
His openers for the local stop on the DAMN. Tour will be fellow Compton native YG along with Virginia's "Broccoli" hitmaker D.R.A.M., the latter of whom is also slated to play this year's Soundset in two weeks.
Xcel Center reps had a busy morning, as they also announced a Dec. 1 concert with Katy Perry.