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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Inga Parkel

Kendrick Lamar to co-headline 2025 tour with mega R&B star

Kendrick Lamar and his longtime collaborator SZA have announced they’ll be touring together in 2025.

The artists will embark on the North American leg of their Grand National Tour beginning in April next year, with pre-sale going live on Wednesday (December 4).

Their announcement comes shortly after the “Not Like Us” rapper surprise-released his latest album, GNX, on November 22. SZA is featured on two of the songs, “Luther” and “Gloria.”

The 12-track record is a follow-up to 2022’s Mr. Morale and the High Steppers and arrived months before he’s scheduled to perform at the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show in February.

While GNX arrived unannounced, it was much anticipated by fans. The tour will be in support of the new album.

SZA and Kendrick Lamar previously performed at Coachella together in 2018 (Getty Images for Coachella)

Lamar, 37, and SZA, 35, previously toured together for record label Top Dawg Entertainment’s 2018 Championship Tour. They also collaborated on Lamar’s hit single “All the Stars” that same year.

The Grammy-winning artists will kick off their Grand National Tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 19. They will continue to other major U.S. cities, including Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Detroit, Michigan, before concluding in Washington, D.C. on June 18.

Following the release of his album, GNX debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s 200 with “Luther” landing third on the Billboard Hot 100. Lamar used the album’s opening track, “wacced out murals,” to address the Lil Wayne Super Bowl beef.

“Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down,” Lamar raps in reference to Wayne’s classic 2008 album. “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me / All these n***** agitated / I’m just glad it’s on their faces / Quite frankly, plenty artist but they outdated / Old-a** flows trying to convince me that you they favorite.”

In the lyrics, Lamar claims that being chosen to perform at the Super Bowl inadvertently let down Lil Wayne, who had been hoping to perform at the event in his hometown of New Orleans.

Wayne, 41, addressed the devastating blow in a video posted to Instagram in September, saying: “That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot.

“I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown. And for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that,” he added.

Meanwhile, SZA released her latest album, SOS, in 2022 — years after her 2017 debut album, Ctrl.

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