Kendrick Lamar Shuts Down Camden

Having caught up with The Recipe rapper earlier in the day we were excited but unsure of what to expect from the super chilled newly hailed King Of The West at the first of his sold out London gigs in Camden's Electric Ballroom...

...But let us tell you now, the kid from Compton more than held his own. Walking on to the sounds of F*ck Your Ethnicity which the crowd pretty much screamed every single word back at the hooded star before he even put the mic to his mouth just standing there for a few seconds to take it all in.

Following the opener, other Section 80 cuts like A.D.H.D and Hol' Up kept the crowd hype as he recited each bar word for word. Although admittedly the crowd full of some real fans made sure they drowned him out on a couple of occaisions. Put it this way, crowd participation was not a problem just check out some of the footage Hip Hop Chronicle managed to grab below.

Running through tracks like some type of Tazmanian hip hop devil it was hard to keep up with which song came next because lets be honest there's a lot of bangers for him to get through. Of course the Kendrick Lamar EP got an airing switchin the tempo between She Needs Me and P+P pleased the TDE supporters. Then there was even more love for the (O)verly (D)edicated fans when the 5 footer took requests; the uproar that ensued was just too much! I'm not sure how he deciphered the requests but he did and after a good three or four tracks deep he took back control ordering everyone to throw three fingers in the air for his smash Hiii Power shouting out any haters with the Woodkid lending Spiteful Chant which saw the Electric Ballroom erupt once again.

Dropping his I Am freestyle before saying his goodbyes the now fully sweated out hip hop stans refused to move one millimetre and a clambering of stomping feet and desperate cheering for the guy his mama named Kendrick Lamar brought him back onto the stage and straight into the bass warped Gunplay featuring Cartoon And Cereal and Dre collab and first single from Good Kid Mad City (out 2 October as confirmed last night) The Recipe.

If anyone has that on film we'd love to see it because how you could have held a camera steadily during that encore, we just can't comprehend. If you're lucky enough to have tickets for tonight then enjoy, if not make sure you're ready for next time around because you seriously missed out on witnessing the first ever set of UK shows. Oh yeah and look out for the next issue where we speak to Kendrick about his rise to success and his plans following being crowned King Of The West.