Hip-hop's most consistently stellar rapper of the past decade and a half, Kendrick Lamar, is finally coming to the Twin Cities again for the first time in five years.
The Los Angeles emcee confirmed an Aug. 20 date at Xcel Energy Center on his newly announced Big Steppers Tour, tied to his latest widely acclaimed album that came out Friday, "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers." One of the new record's collaborators, Baby Keem, is opening along with Tanna Leone.
Tickets to the St. Paul gig — which falls on a Saturday night — go on sale next Friday (May 20) at noon via Ticketmaster, with pre-sale options beginning Thursday. Prices were not made public. His date at the X falls a month into the tour, which begins July 19 in Oklahoma City.
The youngest of the L.A. area rap heroes to appear in the Dr. Dre-led Super Bowl Half-Time Show in February at age 34, Lamar wowed a full house at Xcel Center once before on tour behind his "DAMN." album in 2017. His only prior appearances in town before that were at Epic nightclub and the Soundset festival in 2012.
"Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers" arrived Friday with only a few weeks' notice and with a lot of cool guest stars on it, also including Portishead's Beth Gibbons, Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah and Thundercat.
![Two Palmer's Bar patrons, who go by the names "R.D." and "C," shook hands before parting ways outside the bar Saturday night. ] (AARON LAVINSKY/STAR T](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/XMVIB4VFOXUAYLJHKRNUNCOWKM.jpg?w=75&h=75&fit=crop&crop=faces)
