Ultra-famous superfriends SZA and Kendrick Lamar spent most of 2025 on what amounts to one long victory lap together. They played the Super Bowl. Their song “Luther” topped the Hot 100 for months, and the two of them took their stadium show all over the world. (I caught the Raleigh date, and it was great.) But SZA and Kendrick Lamar remain perfectly capable of playing non-stadium rooms — venues like crystal shops and housing-project toy drives.
On Wednesday night, SZA played what looks like an extremely chill pop-up acoustic set at Crystalarium, a crystal shop in Los Angeles. That seems pretty on-brand, right? Check out some cozy videos below.
The people at Crystalarium were evidently pretty happy with how it all went.
On Thursday, Top Dawg Entertainment, SZA’s current label home and Kendrick’s former one, threw its annual Christmas charity concert and toy drive at the Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects in Watts. Admission was free to anyone who brought unwrapped toy. It’s a huge yearly get-together for the community of people around TDE. Last year, that was where Kendrick first performed “Squabble Up.” The announced bill for this year’s TDE Christmas show included SZA, Doechii, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and Isaiah Rashad. It did not include Kendrick Lamar, but I bet nobody was surprised when Kendrick showed up anyway.
At the Christmas show, Kendrick and SZA did their hits “Luther” and “30 For 30” together.
Other surprise guests at the TDE Christmas show included Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Monica. Here’s Snoop and Dre doing “The Next Episode” together.
