13 Best Moments From Grand National Tour Kickoff

When the lights went down and the show began, a Buick Grand National Experimental (aka Buick GNX) rose up from the bottom of the stage. Lamar, barely visible behind the tinted windows, rapped GNX’s opening track “Wacced Out Murals” while sitting at the wheel. (As a tie-in to the lyrics, Anita Baker was playing over the venue’s speakers prior to the show’s start). Exiting the car, Lamar revved up the crowd with a heated “Squabble Up” – and when he pulled up to the “I feel good, get the f–k out my face” lyric, the crowd readily shifted into high gear.

During “Euphoria,” Lamar ran down his laundry list of Drake grievances while running around a circular catwalk that extended into the floor seats. There was a passion and fervor in his flow, yet in terms of body language, it never seemed like he was trying to jolt the crowd into a foaming frenzy of righteous anger. Talking about hating a person without being defined (or poisoned) by that hatred is a difficult proposition, and Lamar’s handling of “Euphoria” during the show made it seem that he’s mindful of that balancing act.

While Lamar started the night behind the wheel of a GNX on an otherwise empty stage, SZA began her set with the same GNX car draped in vines, leaves and general greenery, surrounded by dancers whose individualistic outfits and balletic moves stood in contrast to Lamar’s dancers (who tended to dress uniformly and move in militaristic, lockstep choreography). With her earthy, forest tones standing in rich contrast to his sharp, urban visuals, SZA seemed to immediately brighten up the stage – and Kendrick – when she joined him for a rousing “30 for 30.”

When good kid, m.A.A.d city broke, Lamar was already a commanding, dynamic stage performer – but damn, his stage visuals have come a long way since then. “Reincarnated” was a particular standout, with Lamar rapping under a dismal streetlamp while his dancers – arranged diagonally on a staircase – popped up and down with the song’s cascading piano. The entire thing was cast in a grey pallor, as if you were watching a hazy film noir in real time. Despite the arena being massive, moments like that one made the show feel intimate and even painfully revealing. (There was also a clever bit later on where you could see his dancers in color on the screens, but the picture-in-picture closeup shot of Lamar appeared in black and white.)

SZA’s second set was a delicious forest fantasia that found the R&B superstar interacting with a variety of insect dancers. “F2F” gave her the chance to live out her rock star fantasy; “Garden (Say It Like Dat)” found her wailing a massive money note on her back while two praying mantises (aka people on stilts) prowled around her; and “Kitchen” saw her riding the back of a giant ant as if it were a mechanical bull. Maybe her next film project will be Honey, I Shrunk the SZA.

“Doves In the Wind” was a bit of a surprise for Lamar and SZA to do together on tour, but we all knew “All the Stars” was gonna be part of the setlist. Even so, when it arrived, it felt like a major moment thanks to some simple but smart staging. With the co-headliners on opposite ends of the circular runway, it felt like they were star-crossed lovers singing to each other. That drama was heightened (literally) when the platforms under them began rising into the air, bringing them closer to the stars, but not each other.

When SZA delivered “Kill Bill,” the praying mantis imagery that recurred throughout her set paid off. Even if you’re not an entomologist, you may know that after praying mantises mate, the female sometimes (though not always) eats the male. Sure enough, as SZA sweetly sang her Hot 100 song about murdering her ex, footage of a female mantis chomping off a male’s head played on the screen behind her.

SZA’s insectoid theme reached chrysalis during “Saturn,” an inventively executed segment that found her rising into the air on a pair of butterfly wings as an impossibly long dress – resembling the sticky goop a pupa resides in while it transforms – unfolded beneath her. For as high as SZA got above the stage, her strong, confident vocals remained grounded and organic.

Given that this tour that includes not just one but three Drake diss tracks, it’s pretty wild that the setlist also includes two Drake collaborations (even if the Drizzy verses have been excised). Not only did Lamar rap “Poetic Justice,” a pre-feud track he recorded featuring Drake, but SZA gave fans a twerk-filled take on “Rich Baby Daddy,” which is, in terms of credits, a Drake track first and foremost. Trolling? Tribute? Olive branch? Olive the above? Whatever the message, “Rich Baby Daddy” sounded fantastic, and it had phones and eyebrows raised in equal measure.

By the time SZA got to “BMF,” it was clear that she was killing it, and there was a loose, frolicsome quality to the way she and her dancers moved around the stage. Next up, SZA sang part of “Kiss Me More,” her collab with Doja Cat, which included a brief but noticeable nod to Prince: before the song wrapped, the distinctive guitar riff from “Kiss” rang out over the speakers, accompanied by a flash of purple light.

Whoever had the idea to split “TV Off” into two parts deserves a raise. The GNX standout appeared early in the night, but in a shortened version that cut off before the now-beloved “Mustaaaaard” scream. People seemed a touch disappointed to miss out on the viral musical moment in real life, so when K.Dot revisited “TV Off” toward the end of the show – and brought Mustard out on stage for his long, loud shout-out – people absolutely lost their minds.

For a song that starts out, “psst, I see dead people,” “Not Like Us” sure has a way of making thousands of people simultaneously come to life. Though Lamar’s color palette for the majority of the night was grey and muted, he brought the Mustard-produced smash to the stage in living color, pairing it with a vivid, eye-popping collage of Black art throughout the ages, from Africa to America, from pharaohs to Funkadelic. Yes, the song is a diss track, but with these visuals, it feels arguably more like a celebration of Black excellence than a takedown of a rival.

After an intense night of nonstop performances, the one-two finale of “Luther” and “Gloria” felt like a warm, gracious victory lap for both artists, particularly when they both paused to take in the crowd for a moment. “This might be one of my favorite songs,” Lamar said prior to “Gloria,” to which SZA replied, “It makes me wanna cry a tiny bit.” As a bookend, Lamar and SZA got into the GNX after the last song (he held the door for her), descending under the stage as the lights went down.