I'll be honest. I'm not as big of a Kendrick Lamar fan as the rest of the entire world, so when I saw that SZA cancelled her part of the TDE tours, I didn't want to believe it. Going into the experience with half the excitement I originally had made the entire experience a wild ride. Since I know not everyone can afford to drop $80 on a ticket, I figured I would spread some of the poor money management wealth.

First things first: a TDE crash course.

TDE stands for Top Dawg Entertainment. It is an independent record label that was founded in 2004 by Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. There are nine artists signed to the label: Zacari, Lance Skiiwalker, SiR, Isaiah Rashad, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, SZA, and Kendrick Lamar. Zacari, the most recent addition, is mostly known for his sweet vocals that can be heard in the background of a number of the artists' songs; most notably LOVE. by Kendrick Lamar, which began as a pitch of his own song titled 'Lovely'. Outside of the mainstream hits that SZA and Kendrick Lamar have proven to be, each of the other artists have garnered their own intimate, dedicated fan bases. The majority of the crowd knew more than just Kendrick's songs, which was a nice surprise.

1. The Arrival

The first thing I saw upon arrival was a mass of high-schoolers passing around a bottle of vodka, and I immediately regretted my decision to go. Being pre-disappointed by the whole SZA deal, I began to wonder why I paid $80 to spend a few hours surrounded by children. After getting past security, I became aware that they were charging $20 for drinks and $8-10 for food. Like really, y'all? I can't even get a senior citizen discount or something?

Rating: 0/10

2. Seating

If you've ever been to Lakewood Amphitheater, you know that VIP and the more expensive tickets get seats. General admission gets a grassy hill to work shit out on with the rest of the Plebs. I had never been. So at this point, I paid $80 to spend a few hours sitting on a grassy hill surrounded by children. L O L

Rating: -1/10

3. SiR

Unfortunately I fell victim to searching for real bathrooms and missed Lance, but SiR came out the gate with some pretty smooth notes. Because I was least familiar with SiR's music, I couldn't really get 100% into his set, but he was a solid warm up. Some of the people in the crowd vibed with him a lot.

Rating: ?/10

4. Isaiah Rashad

Isaiah Rashad changed the course of the concert. Everyone stood up for him. Partially because no one was expecting him to be there. Partially because he is one of the most underrated, talented members of TDE. He performed '4r Da Squaw' and 'Free Lunch'. It was great, but he doesn't get all 10 points because we're still waiting on that new album.

Rating: 7/10

5. Jay Rock

Jay Rock has experienced a spike in popularity since being featured on the Black Panther Album (They played 'King's Dead' like 3 times throughout the concert). Surprisingly, he is traditionally a 'Gangsta rap' artist, and performed some of his old songs. He also performed his newest song 'Win', which exists in the realm of generic that is enough to make it popular, and although it's not particularly skillful or impressive, it's amusing enough to warm you up to liking it by the end of the song. He's also dropping an album on June 15th.

Rating: 6/10

6. Ab-Soul

I honestly don't know much about Ab-Soul, but from what I heard, homeboy is extremely talented. Like I was actually impressed. He was another artist that almost everyone in the crowd knew. He performed 'Huey Knew' and 'Terrorist Threats'.

Rating: 8/10

7. Schoolboy Q

Schoolboy Q was probably the most engaging and charismatic of the artists on stage. He talked and joked a lot which was really nice to see, as venues as large as Lakewood can lose intimacy in size. He was very high energy and positive which I always appreciate in an artists I'm seeing. Schoolboy performed more song than most of the other artists including 'Collard Greens' and 'Dope Dealer', and 'Studio'. He promised to release an album by the end of the year.

Rating: 8/10

8. The DJ

The DJ that played between sets was really good as well. He did a great job of playing an array of old and current songs and really kept the audience's energy up. Although his transitions were a little shaky, he deserves some acknowledgement.

Rating: 9/10

9. The Funnel Cake

I broke down and paid the arm and leg to get a funnel cake and tbh, it was great. Deserved an honorable mention.

Rating: 8/10

10. 'Pulitzer Kenny'

Everyone in the crowd was Beyonce for Kendrick's entire set. He spent 10 minutes being summoned by some weird techno-music which was interesting. But when he finally came out it was amazing. The visuals were amazing. I was kind of surprised because he didn't have as much stage presence and charisma as I expected him to (Schoolboy Q must've stolen the whole crew's personality or something), but it was still really great. He opened with 'DNA', and did 'Swimming Pools', 'Alright' (twice), 'Humble' (twice; the first time the crowd performed it for him), 'Backseat Freestyle', 'LOVE.', and many, many more. By the end I was tired and ready to sit down and he was still going. But it was lit.

Rating: 10/10

In Conclusion

Overall, it was a great experience. 10/10 would recommend. 10/10 would do again.