Rapper Kendrick Lamar announces he will tour Australia for shows in December

Kendrick Lamar will return to Australia and New Zealand for shows in December. 

The American rapper, 34, announced his return Down Under – nearly four years since he headlined at Splendour in the Grass in 2018. 

Kendrick will play shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland, alongside his cousin and protégé, Baby Keem.

Presale tickets will be available from May 19, with general admission tickets available  the following day for fans of the rap star.

The rapper – who earned the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018 – will be hitting the road in support for his album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. 

The tour itself will form part of a global tour for the superstar, which includes dates in the United States and Europe. 

This comes amid plenty of social media reaction to his track Auntie Diaries in which he raps about his trans family members.  

The song was mainly met with praise on the Internet, however, there were also detractors who accused him of misgendering his relatives with pronouns use and also repeated use of an LGBTQ slur.

Kendrick begins Auntie Diaries by rapping: ‘My auntie is a man now / I think I’m old enough to understand now.’

He went on to say that his classmates in elementary school couldn’t understand his uncle’s transition but that didn’t stop their relationship from growing.

Kendrick went on to say that his ‘favorite cousin’ followed the same path as his uncle as he rapped: ‘Demetrius is Mary-Ann now / He’s more confident to live his plan now / But the family in disbelief this time.’  

He went on to say that he has accepted his trans family members as he explained: ‘The day I chose humanity over religion / The family got closer, it was all forgiven.’

Masterpiece: Kendrick released his sixth studio album  which resulted in plenty of social media reaction to his track Auntie Diaries in which he raps about his trans family members

As his use of an anti-LGBTQ slur was at the center of much of the controversy, the 14-time Grammy Award winner does explain the use in the lyrics of the song as he said: ‘I said them F-bombs, I ain’t know any better / Mistakenly, I ain’t think that you’d know any different.

‘See, I was taught words was nothing more than a sound / If ever they was pronounced without any intentions.’

Obviously the discourse on Twitter ranged from criticism to praise as one fan expressed their elation over the track: ‘Auntie Diaries is the first song in major support of the trans community from a rap artist as big as Kendrick and I can’t voice how happy I am for it.’

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers can be streamed on all music platforms. 

Bond: Kendrick is seen with his fiancee and mother to two of his children Whitney Alford in February 2016