When Kendrick Lamar walks on to the Auckland City Limits stage, hip-hop fans will see an artist who has come a long way in a short space of time.
Back in 2012, Lamar celebrated the release of his second album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, with a sold-out show at the Powerstation. Armed with just a DJ and microphone, Lamar found many of his songs being chanted back word-for-word by the 1000-strong crowd.
It's a scene likely to repeat itself at Western Springs in March when he headlines Auckland's newest festival.
But fans might have more trouble keeping up with the Compton rapper this time thanks to the dexterous material from his latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly, released in March. The New York Times praised it as "a howling work of black protest art", and another critic called it, "The Great American Hip-Hop Album".
With 16 tracks across 79 minutes, it's so tautly wound with lyrical barbs and intricate metaphors you wouldn't blame Lamar from shying away from performing the songs live. Instead, he's used them to push his skills further, introducing a live band and showing off his off-the-cuff confidence with a recent medley on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
