By Kevin Jachimowicz

Compton Rapper Kendrick Lamar opened up for wild headliner Steve Aoki at the CCSU spring concert, making for an exciting show.

Lamar opened the show with a number of pieces off of his debut studio album, titled Section 80. Despite it being released only digitally, Section 80 is in fact his debut album and was also released independently through iTunes.  Lamar even went back to some of his older works, performing mellow songs such as P&P off of his Kendrick Lamar EP from late 2009.

After running through a few more tracks off of Section 80, Kendrick went into what everyone was likely anxious to see him perform: the most memorable tracks off of his latest album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, which he is going on a world tour for immediately after the college tour with Aoki comes to an end.

After a little while of his slow-paced, mellow tracks, Lamar sped up the pace and jumped into songs such as “Backseat Freestyle” which definitely got the crowd going, as well as his platinum single, “Swimming Pools,” an introspective song regarding alcoholism.  Lamar continued this pace with “Problems” before calming the crowd for two of his very smooth tracks, “Poetic Justice” which features a Janet Jackson sample from the song “Any Time, Any Place” followed by “Don’t Kill My Vibe.”

The set came to a close with one of his most memorable album songs yet simply titled, “M.A.A.D City,” an angry song featuring almost psychotic vocals at points and samples “Don’t Change Your Love” as performed by The Five Stairsteps.

Kendrick Lamar displayed great crowd control and put on a great show. His on-stage presence will likely continue to heighten as his continues to show quick growth as an artist.