The sun was out for double Grammy-Award-winning US rapper Kendrick Lamar this weekend as he performed an energetic set of his hits to an enraptured young North London crowd.
On stage at the Wireless festival on Saturday, less than a week after winning “Best Male Hip-Hop Artist” at the BET awards, Lamar performed a stream of favourites.
“We gon’ be alright! We gon’ be alright!” the crowd shouted along with Lamar as they jumped up and down and pumped their arms in time with his latest single, the up-tempo Alright produced by US hit maker Pharrell Williams.
It has been a good year for Lamar. After winning two Grammy awards in February for his single “i”, his critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly reached the top spot on both the US and British album charts, in a first for the star.
And ask any hip-hop fan who they reckon is this generation’s most gifted rapper and 28-year-old Lamar’s name is among them.
That is because of his skills as an emcee and for his ability to produce catchy hooks while delivering a strongly politicised account of life as a black man in the US.
But it was Lamar’s older songs that elicited some of the most rapturous responses.
After saying goodbye, he returned to perform 2011’s A.D.H.D. – one of his first songs to get attention from the mainstream media.