Anderson .Paak was bound to have special guests for the hometown stop on his Malibu tour at the Hollywood Bowl. After all, the album of the same name, which he was scheduled to play in its entirety, is full of features—from BJ the Chicago Kid on “The Waters” and ScHoolboy Q on “Am I Wrong” to Rapsody on “Without You”, and Talib Kweli on the closing track, “The Dreamer”—and what better place for them to appear than at the most famous venue in Los Angeles?
But the one who really made this open-air club of 17,000 attendees go up on a Tuesday? That was Dr. Dre.
The Compton-born-and-bred hip-hop impresario sent the Hollywood Bowl into a full-on fervor when he emerged onstage to open the evening’s second set. With Anderson as his hype man, Dr. Dre proceeded to blow many a mind with back-to-back 2001 classics: “The Next Episode” and “Still D.R.E.”
Related: Anderson .Paak To Issue Acclaimed 2016 ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ As Limited Edition Vinyl LP
For the 59-year-old rapper-turned-mogul, it was a prescient return to the stage—just ahead of an announcement that he would be performing during the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in October. “I’ve got a lot more coming, believe me. I’m not done,” he added before departing the Hollywood Bowl stage. For Anderson, it was just one of many signs on the night that he, too, has the talent, charisma and catalog to someday wind up in Cleveland, if he keeps this up.
Dr. Dre has had more than a little to do with Anderson’s path. As much as Malibu did to establish Anderson’s musical bona fides, his features on Dre’s 2015 album, Compton, truly exposed his textured vocals and impeccable flow to the masses before his signature LP had even dropped.
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On this particular night, Anderson’s case for greatness began right from the get-go. After a scintillating opening set by his backup singers, known as GAWD, Anderson strolled onto the Bowl’s iconic half-shell stage with his unmistakable smile beaming from ear to ear. He sang sweetly to “The Bird”, the opening song from Malibu, as colorful silhouettes of birds occasionally fluttered across the screen behind him, The Free Nationals, and the Color of Noize Orchestra, with Derrick Hodge conducting.
From there, he was off to the races as he recounted, track by track, the record that launched him onto the musical map—and for good reason. Just as there are no skips to be found on Malibu, there was no song to be missed once the show began in earnest.
That included “Heart Don’t Stand a Chance”, wherein Anderson jumped back behind his drum kit to bang away while singing about a sensual encounter, as he so often does. He would go on to keep the beat from that position on multiple occasions, including during “Parking Lot”.
By and large, though, Anderson spent the night commanding the crowd from the front of the stage, and often with insightful stories, fun bits, and heartwarming moments.
After leading “The Season | Carry Me”, he told the story behind the song—about the time he convinced his mother to not only buy him his first pair of Jordan sneakers, but also carry him to the car so his new shoes wouldn’t be tainted by the dirty street. Before diving into the funky“Put Me Thru”, he dedicated the song to its inspiration: the ex-girlfriend of Jose Rios, the guitarist in The Free Nationals.
During “Lite Weight”, the real-life Anderson sang from the shadows as his alter ego, DJ Pee .Wee, appeared onscreen in a golden, leopard-print blazer, gold-rimmed cat-eye shades, and a shimmering wig.
On the heels of a mellower back-to-back of “Water Fall (Interluuube)” and “Your Prime”, Anderson started speaking from the heart about his journey through music and life. In the middle of that, his teenage son, Soul Rasheed, walked out to surprise his father with a framed platinum record. The moment appeared to take Anderson aback, to the point where he lost his train of thought from the story he was trying to tell.
But rather than returning to a smooth track, Anderson kept getting knocked off by The Free Nationals’ keyboardist, Ron “T.Nava” Avant. That bit begat some performative rage en route to “Come Down” which, in turn, got the entire audience out of its seats to dance.
The end of the first set came with two more entertaining extracurriculars. First, there was the flurry of women’s underwear flung from the audience onto Anderson after he had finished singing “Silicon Valley”. Then, between “Celebrate” and the album-closing “The Dreamer”, which included a guest spot from Talib Kweli as featured on the album, the screen lit up with a video of the Family Matters theme recreated with members of The Free Nationals—including Anderson as Steve Urkel. The “family” aspect was surely apparent throughout the set, with all of the album’s notable guests aside from The Game (“Room In Here”) reprising their recorded roles onstage.
None of that prepared the house for the taste of Dre that was to come, though there was much more to the aftermath of the show’s Malibu set than those two hits of chronic.
The Free Nationals got to trot out some of their own material, including “Beauty & Essex” and “Eternal Light”. Anderson then returned to croon to “Make It Better” and “Tints”—albeit without their features from Smokey Robinson and Kendrick Lamar, respectively.
The danceable hits kept on coming, from a run through KAYTRANADA’s .Paak-showcasing “GLOWED UP” to his Grammy-winning hip-hop smash “Bubblin”, before the second set wrapped up with “Milk n’ Honey” and “Come Home”.
For an encore, Anderson offered a four-song tour of his broader repertoire. He came back to “Daydreaming”, a cut from his long-time side project with the producer Knxwledge, NxWorries. He then pivoted into his part from Cordae’s “RNP”, only for Cordae himself to emerge for a bounce-worthy duet. Neither Fred again.. nor CHIKA was on hand to reprise their roles on “places to be”, though that didn’t stop Anderson from taking the drum-and-bass collaboration from this past spring out for a joyride.
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To close out the night, Anderson paid respects to his friend, the late Mac Miller, with their collaborative hit “Dang!” while dancing on the catwalk around the Hollywood Bowl’s Pool Circle. A spectacular fireworks display sent the audience off onto the streets of Hollywood, and Anderson and his band back on the road.
To that end, the Malibu tour will continue across the United States into mid-October. During that stretch, Anderson .Paak will split off from the Free Nationals twice to perform as DJ Pee .Wee, including a set at San Francisco’s Portola Fest this Sunday. Find tickets to upcoming Anderson .Paak tour dates here.
Below, view the full setlist from the show and a gallery of photos by Farah Sosa courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
Setlist: Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals | Hollywood Bowl | Los Angeles, CA | 9/24/24
Set One [1]: The Bird, Heart Don’t Stand a Chance, The Waters [2], The Season | Carry Me, Put Me Thru, Am I Wrong [3], Without You [4], Parking Lot, Lite Weight, Room in Here [5], Water Fall (Interluuube), Your Prime, Come Down, Silicon Valley, Celebrate, The Dreamer [6]
Set Two: The Next Episode / Still D.R.E. (Dr. Dre) [7], Beauty & Essex (Free Nationals), Eternal Light (Free Nationals), Make It Better, Tints, GLOWED UP (KAYTRANADA), Bubblin, Milk n’ Honey, Come Home
Encore: Daydreaming (NxWorries), RNP (Cordae) [8], places to be (Fred again..), Dang! (Mac Miller)
[1] Full performance of Malibu (2016) featuring Derrick Hodge’s Color of Noize Orchestra; [2] with BJ the Chicago Kid; [3] with ScHoolboy Q; [4] with Rapsody; [5] with Sonyae; [6] with Talib Kweli; [7] with Dr. Dre, Color of Noize Orchestra; [8] with Cordae
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