DJ Akademiks heaped some major praise on Kendrick Lamar during a recent live stream covering his Grand National Tour. Ak was particularly impressed by Lamar performing his songs without the assistance of a backing track.
"My boy rapping with no backing track. Some of y'all don't know concerts. That boy rapping with no backing track. He's dope. There's no backing track, no hype man, and he's rapping a seven-minute song. 'Euphoria' is like seven minutes and then he's still gotta do other songs. It's like bars."
"This gives me Jay-Z vibes, but he's a better performer than Jay-Z. He is," DJ Akademiks continued. "One thing I like about Jay-Z's concerts, he raps every word. Jay-Z raps every word. I love it."
After rapping along a bit to the performance, Ak added: "I ain't gonna lie. This is hip-hop at its heights. N****s is sitting there in a stadium watching this n***a spit bars. No dancers, it's bars. I'm a Drake fan. Drake's my favorite rapper. I think he's the best rapper of all time-- remember Kanye best artist, Drake best rapper. But, I gotta give Kendrick credit for this."
Fans appreciated the candid analysis from DJ Akademiks. "I’m shocked to see Akademiks give props to Kendrick and act like real hip hop media instead of gaslighting his audience and hating on Kendrick like usual!" one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Another joked: "He just being objective, he’ll be back calling him a m*dget tomorrow."
Kendrick Lamar's "Grand National" Tour Dates
Kendrick Lamar and his co-headliner, SZA, kicked off their tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this month. They've got over 30 more concerts coming up in North America and Europe before wrapping up in Stockholm, Sweden in August.
Lamar's already been making headlines for dissing Drake on the tour. Ahead of his opening night performance of "Not Like Us," he played a skit in which he trolled the Toronto rapper for taking legal action against Universal Music Group.
