Kendrick Lamar & SZA are a dynamic duo on their epic Grand National Tour – MetLife Stadium review

Exactly one year and four days after releasing “Not Like Us” and being crowned the winner of his feud with Drake, Kendrick Lamar brought his co-headlining tour with SZA—the Grand National Tour—to the NYC-area NJ venue MetLife Stadium for their first of two shows there (5/8/25). It’s been a whirlwind year for Kendrick since that beef; “Not Like Us” went on to top the Billboard chart for multiple weeks and sweep all five Grammy categories it was nominated for, Kendrick kept the momentum going with his new album GNX, and then he put on a Super Bowl Halftime Show for the ages. SZA joined him during his Halftime Show, not long after releasing her own new album, Lana (technically billed as a deluxe edition of 2022’s SOS). Between GNX and Lana, the world got three new Kendrick/SZA duets in the span of a month, all three of which were worked into the setlist on this tour.

For the Grand National Tour, Kendrick and SZA put a unique spin on the “co-headlining tour” concept; instead of each playing their own set, they did one long 52-song, nearly-three-hour set that saw Kendrick and SZA switching off every few songs and playing a handful of songs together, including their three new duets and classic ones like “All the Stars” and “Doves in the Wind” (the former performed atop high risers that elevated Kendrick and SZA above the stage). It’s a great fit for two co-headliners who have a batch of songs together like these two do, and it’s also just a great way to keep the momentum going—there’s no lull between sets, and there’s no time for either headliner’s set to start to drag. Once they’ve churned out their fair share of fan favorites, the next headliner comes out and does the same.

During Kendrick’s portions of the show, he played almost all of GNX, an album that largely delivers more where the hard beats and fired-up rapping of “Not Like Us” came from—a pretty drastic pivot from the mental health-inspired rap opera Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers that he released two years earlier. The rest of his set was a greatest hits of bangers from his previous four albums that fit perfectly with the “Not Like Us”/GNX era, and other recent gems like the verse that reignited the Drake beef in the first place (from Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That”), the Drake diss “Euphoria,” and this year’s Playboi Carti collab “Good Credit.” Like GNX itself, the show was mostly fueled by hard beats and rapping, with some cool choreography, visuals, and a Buick GNX that Kendrick walked out of to start the show and used several other times throughout the night, but none of the theatrical stage production work that defined the Big Steppers Tour. As Kendrick commanded a football stadium with the same type of stripped-back performance he used to give in clubs over a decade ago, he reminded me of something he said during his 2023 Grammy acceptance speech for Best Rap Album: “All we ever wanted was to be able to be the biggest underground artist of all time.” That’s exactly what he seemed like on Thursday night.

SZA’s set was a little more scaled back than the SOS tour too, and she also proved she could command a football stadium with little more than her powerful voice, her charisma, and her increasingly-long list of fan favorites. She also had her fair share of cool choreography, she showed off her live band a couple times, and on-screen visuals that followed the bug theme of the Lana era. Oh, and she rode a giant bug on stage. With Lana out in the world, she has more fan favorites than ever, and just about every song she played felt and sounded like a hit.

The presence (and sometimes absence) of Drake was felt, as it was at most of Kendrick’s major events since the beef escalated in 2024. A mock deposition with both Kendrick and SZA was shown on screen at various points in the show, including a part where Kendrick gets grilled about May 4, 2024–the day he dropped “Not Like Us.” It was of course felt when he played “Euphoria,” “Not Like Us,” and “Like That,” and it’s hard not to wonder if he included his pre-beef Drake duet “Poetic Justice” (sans any of Drake’s parts) with the beef in mind. SZA also technically played a Drake song, “Rich Baby Daddy,” but it’s really Sexyy Red’s hook that carries that song anyway and I’m pretty sure the screaming, dancing MetLife crowd would agree.

Also on hand was Mustard, who produced “Not Like Us” and a few GNX songs. Mustard opened the night with a hits-filled, crowd-pleasing DJ set and he joined Kendrick on stage for–what else?–“TV Off” and its iconic “MUSTAAAAAAAARD” roar.

Even though Kendrick and SZA were both supporting new albums, it felt like a career-spanning celebration for two artists who changed their respective games, gradually climbed the ranks, and made it to stadium level in the most organic way possible. It’s a rare win when two of the biggest artists in the world are also two of the best artists in the world, and I just hope this isn’t the last time we see them take on the world together.

Kendrick and SZA do it again at MetLife Stadium tonight (5/9) and then the international tour continues through August. All remaining dates are listed below, along with the setlist and some videos from last night…

Kendrick Lamar walks out at MetLife Stadium pic.twitter.com/ifHSe5S0mv

— BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan) May 9, 2025

HUMBLE. pic.twitter.com/oDPSCmOLrS

— BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan) May 9, 2025

SZA “F2F” at MetLife Stadium pic.twitter.com/A6k37g25JS

— BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan) May 9, 2025

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan)

Kendrick Lamar & SZA @ MetLife Stadium – 5/8/25 Setlist (via)
Act I: Kendrick Lamar
wacced out murals (Kendrick Lamar song)
squabble up (Kendrick Lamar song)
King Kunta (Kendrick Lamar song)
ELEMENT. (Kendrick Lamar song)
tv off (Kendrick Lamar song) (First Half)

Act II: SZA
30 for 30 (SZA song, with Kendrick)
What Do I Do (SZA song)
Love Galore (SZA song)
Broken Clocks (SZA song)
The Weekend (SZA song)

Act III: Kendrick Lamar
euphoria (Kendrick Lamar song)
reincarnated (Kendrick Lamar song)
HUMBLE. (Kendrick Lamar song)
Backseat Freestyle (Kendrick Lamar song)
family ties (Baby Keem song)
Swimming Pools (Drank) (Kendrick Lamar song) (Intro Only)
m.A.A.d city (Kendrick Lamar song) (Played behind Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love”)
Alright (Kendrick Lamar song)
man at the garden (Kendrick Lamar song)

Act IV: SZA
Scorsese Baby Daddy (SZA song)
Kitchen (SZA song)
Blind (SZA song)
Low (SZA song)

Act V: Kendrick Lamar and SZA
Doves in the Wind (SZA ft. Kendrick Lamar song)
All the Stars
LOVE. (Kendrick Lamar song)

Act VI: Kendrick Lamar
dodger blue (Kendrick Lamar song)
peekaboo (Kendrick Lamar song)
Like That (Future & Metro Boomin ft. Kendrick Lamar song)
DNA. (Kendrick Lamar song)
GOOD CREDIT (Playboi Carti ft. Kendrick Lamar song)
Count Me Out / Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe (Kendrick Lamar song)
Money Trees (Kendrick Lamar song)
Poetic Justice (Kendrick Lamar song)

Act VII: SZA
Diamond Boy (DTM) (SZA song)
Shirt (SZA song)
Kill Bill (SZA song)
Snooze (SZA song)
Crybaby (SZA song)
Nobody Gets Me (SZA song)
Good Days (SZA song)
Rich Baby Daddy (Drake ft. Sexyy Red & SZA song)
BMF (SZA song)
Kiss Me More (Doja Cat ft. SZA song)

Act VIII: Kendrick Lamar
(Song in GNX Teaser Video, Possibly called “Bodies”)
N95 (Kendrick Lamar song) (First Verse)
tv off (Kendrick Lamar song) (Second Half)
Not Like Us (Kendrick Lamar song)

Encore: Kendrick Lamar and SZA
luther (Kendrick Lamar song)
gloria (Kendrick Lamar song)

—

Kendrick Lamar & SZA — 2025 Tour Dates
May 09 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 12 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
May 17 – Seattle, WA – Lumen Field
May 21 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 23 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 27 – Glendale, AZ – State Farm Stadium
May 29 – San Francisco, CA – Oracle Park
May 31 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium
Jun 04 – St. Louis, MO – The Dome at America’s Center
Jun 06 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
Jun 10 – Detroit, MI – Ford Field
Jun 12 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre
Jun 16 – Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium
Jun 18 – Washington, DC – Northwest Stadium
Jul 02 – Cologne, Germany – RheinEnergieSTADION
Jul 04 – Frankfurt, Germany – Deutsche Bank Park
Jul 08 – Glasgow, UK – Hampden Park
Jul 10 – Birmingham, UK – Villa Park
Jul 13 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Johan Cruijff ArenA
Jul 15 – Paris, France – Paris La Défense Arena
Jul 19 – Cardiff, UK – Principality Stadium
Jul 22 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Jul 27 – Lisbon, Portugal – Estadio do Restelo
Jul 30 – Barcelona, Spain – Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys
Aug 02 – Rome, Italy – Stadio Olimpico
Aug 06 – Warsaw, Poland – PGE Narodowy
Aug 09 – Stockholm, Sweden – 3Arena