SLOW TRAVEL BERLIN
Kendrick Lamar, C-Halle, 8pm
Last year may as well have been the year of Kendrick Lamar; just look at most any year-end album list and try to argue otherwise.
Although it wasn’t his first album, 2012′s good kid, m.A.A.d city is the release the catapulted the 25-year-old rapper to fame, and in less than three months, earned itself a gold certification.
Considering Lamar’s hometown of Compton, California, the album tackles issues such as drug abuse and violence that are not unfamiliar to fans of West Coast hip hop.
Yet it is his honest songwriting, prosaic storytelling, and conceptual presentation that made his music stand out as more than just another rap record. Natalye Childress
C-Halle, Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin; 030 69 81 28 14; U: Platz der Luftbrücke; admission: €22.