Kendrick Lamar Brings Out AZ Chike During "Grand National" Tour Stop In SoFi Stadium

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares 3.7K Views
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Kendrick Lamar AZ Chike Grand National Tour SoFi Hip Hop News
Feb 6, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Recording artist Kendrick Lamar poses for a photo after a press conference for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at Media Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Kendrick Lamar just wrapped up his last of three shows in Los Angeles alongside SZA and Mustard, plus a couple of special guests.

The "Grand National" tour from the trio of SZA, Mustard, and Kendrick Lamar has been incredibly successful thus far. It also added a couple of new names to the lineup for their three sold-out Los Angeles shows at SoFi Stadium, which include Justin Bieber and Mr. Checking Cheese himself, AZ Chike.

The "peekaboo" MC popped out to perform this GNX collab alongside Kendrick, as caught by NFR Podcast on Twitter. The Compton lyricist actually took this song to his Super Bowl LIX halftime show earlier this year. It was a great way to show hometown love on Saturday (May 24), although many fans hoped for more guests.

Of course, a lot of the typical discourse popped up online after this guest slot. Loads of praise, a fair share of hate, and also a lot of jokes due to AZ Chike's recent rap battle contributions. His track "What Would You Do?" takes aim at Joey Bada$$, who ripped him with a single line off his Loaded Lux-assisted diss track, "MY TOWN." "Look, Ray Vaughn was so last week / Now, I'm hearing s**t about some n***a named 'A** Cheek'" is a textbook "simple but effective" bar.

Kendrick Lamar SoFi Stadium

Nevertheless, it was great to see a GNX collaborator hit the stage alongside the pgLang creative. We will see if there are any more surprises for the rest of the "Grand National" shows in North America. They'll wrap up on June 18 in the DMV area, and July and August is when they'll hit the road in Europe.

Kendrick Lamar's SoFi Stadium shows were star-studded affairs. It's Los Angeles, so obviously a lot of celebrities made a splash, much to the delight of fans looking for famous faces in the crowd. Perhaps the next couple of shows will have a similar energy, although we doubt anything will be as grand as meaningful as these hometown slots.

Meanwhile, SZA also had her special guest moments, such as the aforementioned Bieber "Snooze" performance and some time onstage with Lizzo. Some fans expected more guests, but they still seemed to love the concert. We'll see what else is in store before this victory lap finally settles down... Or will it?

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

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