Kendrick Lamar & SZA Grand National Tour GNT3

As any astute hip-hop casual visitor to the high-street retail market will have observed, the Kendrick Lamar Hoodie is in fact something rather more than a jumper – it is a considered example of contemporary art in action. Its manufacture (quality materials selected with care) achieves a neat balance between everyday functionality and artistic intent, a leap of the senses that could be described as both garment and statement.The design philosophy is absolutely crammed with visual allusions to Lamar’s trailblazing work – a dense weave of imagery and lyrical shards that turns what might have been usual tee shirt merchandise into something rather more like a walking picture. Anyone who learned to be wary of artist merchandise in the CD era, when every gig seemed to produce a T-shirt with the artist’s name on it, should note that there isn’t a moment of creative compromise here – this isn’t the business of wearing an artist’s nameplate, it’s the business of being a walking dialogue between artist and audience, between sound and image.The jacket performs some quite phenomenal tonal handbrake turns, between streetwear and statement piece – rather like Lamar’s music, it resists categorisation. In the street, on stage, or in the homes and offices of daily life, it’s a garment that understands, as Lamar’s music does, that authenticity lies not in choosing between worlds, but in the devastating intersection of culture, creativity, and life.