Saturday Night Live: Kendrick Lamar performs ‘Rich Spirit’

Saturday Night Live

Tonight’s Saturday Night Live premiere featured a performance from Kendrick Lamar, and we know how grateful the show was to have him. Since the season 48 premiere was a reinvention of sorts from the show, they needed a top-tier musical guest to get people excited. Kendrick tends to do that.

The first song that Kendrick sang tonight was “Rich Spirit,” and there was one thing that we saw almost right away through this track: He had no real fear when it came to come out on stage and keeping the staging simplified. He didn’t have anything other than his shadow and minimal lighting. It’s a reminder that he is one of the best artist in the industry; this is not something that a lot of people could do, especially when it came to how he effortlessly moved through the lyrics. This is probably as good of a hip-hop performance from the show that you’re going to see — it’ll get headlines, but for the right reasons.

Remember here that SNL will have another performance from Lamar a little later tonight, at least if the show keeps up its tradition with shows like this. This first one came in what can be considered the primo spot, prior to the “Weekend Update” segment that really defines the show.

The second track that Lamar performed later in the show was titled “Father Time,” and this is one that was very much subdued in its own way. However, he did have a feature there from Sampha, who joined in what was a small living-room set. Once again, this was a reminder that Kendrick doesn’t have to do much in order to stand out on stage. This was as effective of an openly set as we’ve seen from this show in a rather long time.

Related Get all sorts of other coverage of tonight’s Saturday Night Live

What did you think about Kendrick Lamar on tonight’s Saturday Night Live premiere?

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