Kendrick Lamar is reportedly readying a huge tour next year, but a headlining performance at Coachella isn’t part of his plans.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Coachella were aiming to secure both Kendrick and Rihanna as headliners for the 2025 edition of the Indio, California festival after struggling to sell out tickets over the last two years.
Lamar, who has performed at the festival twice, including headlining in 2017, reportedly turned down the slot, instead preferring to focus on his Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February and a subsequent stadium tour.
Rihanna is also said to rejected the offer as she “didn’t need the money or the exposure” due to her billion-dollar Fenty empire.
It’s possible that being a mother to two young children and working on her long-awaited ninth album may have also 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.
Dubbed The Big Steppers Tour, the massive international trek at one point became the highest-grossing tour by a rapper in history after earning $110.9 million from 929,000 tickets across 73 shows.
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Featuring support from pgLang protégés Baby Keem and Tanna Leone, the tour ran from June 2022 until March 2024, hitting North America, Europe and Oceania.
However, K. Dot’s record did not stand for long as his fierce rival Drake eclipsed it just seven months later, shortly before their long-simmering rivalry boiled over into an all-out beef.
The 6 God‘s It’s All a Blur Tour pulled in $129.7 million from just 30 of its 72 shows, before surpassing the $320 million with its final tally.
While much has been said about Kendrick’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, a 2025 tour could add 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 stadiums around the world.
