Goodbye to the crown? The real reason Kendrick Lamar’s tour tickets are selling so badly

2024 was unquestionably Kendrick Lamar’s year. The Compton rapper kept us on our toes for the entirety of the Earth’s trip round the Sun, filling its journey by going to lengths we’d never heard before in rap music, dissecting piece by piece everyone’s prior pick of the number one artist in the world.

As Drake still wanders the streets with a bandaged ego and furrier coats, Kendrick is relaxing in the glory of his new album, ‘GNX’, released late in the year.

The hype was cooling as the winter drew in but K-Dot ignited things one last time with the release of a 44-minute, 12-track project that was clearly a victory lap around his home state in a black, special edition Buick after which the record is named.

Ticket prices keep fans at home

The message was clear: energetic, fun beats underneath simple yet meaningful words, Kendrick was appealing to the masses, writing his own ‘Now That’s What I Call Music' album for everyone to enjoy. A little like Drake, you might say.

And with that came a tour. Entitled ‘Grand National’ in reference to a line from ‘TV Off’, a high-tempo DJ Mustard club banger. Popping up in 19 cities across 16 states over 3 months, Kendrick’s literal victory lap (along with the angelic voice of SZA) was going to be a huge success, right?

Wrong. And here’s why.

As fans scrambled to find ways to download the CASH app, which worked in partnership with Kendrick to offer a presale link, people were wondering about the prices. We’d seen fans fly to Europe for Taylor Swift concerts and altogether laugh at the numbers Billie Eilish expected her faithful to pay, but what about the people’s man?

Presale came and went before general sale opened on Ticketmaster, and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Grand National’ tickets flew off the shelves like a new batch of Pokémon cards. However, as the immediate FOMO hype cooled, people started to realise just how much they were paying for a stadium seat to watch Ant-Man and his backing dancers.

Fans pay over $1,000 for Kendrick Lamar tour tickets

Dynamic prices fluctuated wildly and fans paid upwards of $200, $500 and even over $1,000 to see Kendrick and SZA together from higher up in the skies than some light aircraft are legally allowed to cruise. As such, common sense grew in the fanbase and the fear of missing out became fear of going broke, which left a lot of tickets unsold. And I mean A LOT.

At the time of writing, none of the shows have sold out. Not in LA, Toronto, San Francisco, and tickets for extra shows added due to demand sit there like Woody, Rex and Slinky, all waiting to be picked up and loved. The problem, Kendrick, are the prices.

After 2024, a tough year on the pockets of many people in the US and beyond, it’s simply not feasible to pay so much hard-earned money to see people gobble it up with such ease.

Kendrick’s not alone - it’s a greed problem from the entertainment business, but something needs to break and perhaps a half-empty tour from the world’s number one male artist might just be the green light for things to change for the better.

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