Kendrick Lamar is reportedly gearing up for a major tour next year, but a headlining performance at Coachella isn’t in his plans.
Coachella aims to secure Kendrick and Rihanna as headliners at Indio, California, festival in 2025 after struggling to secure tickets the previous two years, according to Bloomberg struggle.
Lamar, who has performed at the festival twice, including headlining in 2017, reportedly turned down the opportunity, preferring to focus on his Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February and subsequent Stadium Tour.
Rihanna is also said to have turned down the offer because she “doesn’t need the money or exposure” with her multi-billion dollar Fenty empire.
Being a mother of two and working on her long-awaited ninth album may also have factored into her decision.
Kendrick’s last tour, which accompanied the release of his 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, was a huge success.
This large-scale international tour, known as the “Big Steppers Tour,” once became the highest-grossing tour in the history of a rapper, with a total of 929,000 tickets sold in 73 performances and revenue of US$110.9 million.
With the support of pgLang disciples Baby Keem and Tanna Leone, the tour will last from June 2022 to March 2024, covering North America, Europe and Oceania.
K. Dot’s record didn’t last long, however, as it was surpassed just seven months later by his fierce rival Drake, and not long after that their long-simmering rivalry exploded into a full-blown feud.
The sixth God’s It’s All a Blur tour grossed $129.7 million from just 30 of 72 shows, with final revenue exceeding $320 million.
While there’s already a lot of talk about Kendrick’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, a 2025 tour could further fuel his feud with Drake if it ends up breaking the Toronto rap star’s ticket sales record — — especially if “Not Like Us” rings out in the surrounding stadiums.
