Kendrick Lamar, Global Citizen Announce “Move Afrika” Tour Initiative

Kendrick Lamar‘s pgLang and Global Citizen have teamed up for “Move Afrika.”

Variety reports that the partnership will work to establish the continent’s touring circuit. The DAMN emcee will headline the inaugural festival, Move Afrika: Rwanda, on Dec. 6 at Kigali’s BK Arena. Rwanda will serve as the beginning of a larger series of shows running through the large continent.

Dave Free and Kendrick’s company will spearhead “Move Afrika” shows from 2023 until 2028. According to the outlet, “Move Afrika” looks to establish “entrepreneurship opportunities” throughout Africa. The initiative is hoping the partnership establishes a circuit that inspires and engages local talent, artists, merchants, and agencies that’ll give back to their communities. Each year will yield a new African country with hopes of landing five countries by 2025.

Hugh Evans, Global Citizen co-founder and CEO, spoke to GC’s track record and what they look to accomplish with “Move Afrika.” “As we have expanded our footprint across the continent, what’s always occurred to us is just how unbelievable it is that there isn’t a mature touring circuit across the continent that connects north, south, east, and west Africa,” he began. “So that’s why we’ve created ‘Move Afrika,’ to achieve that goal over the coming five years.”

“I sat down recently with Kendrick and the pgLang team…they all share this massive passion to see that touring across the entire continent would become as prolific as it has become across Latin America, across North America, across Europe, across Australasia and across so many other continents.”

As he continued, Evans detailed what K. Dot and Free’s company would contribute to the campaign. The CEO noted that pgLang would be involved in curation and the event’s rollout.

“pgLang are going to be involved in every aspect of this initiative,” Evans added. “They’re going to be involved from a musical curation point of view, helping to determine which artists are involved following in Kendrick’s footsteps. But they’re also going to be involved creatively as well, thinking through the creative rollout of the campaigns over the years, the look and feel, and the global broadcast.

“They really have become partners in this endeavor. And personally, I can’t think of anyone better on the planet than Kendrick Lamar and pgLang to be the curator. Kendrick has spent so much time on the continent himself; he’s so passionate about it. So when they said that the first performance that he does on the continent will be with ‘Move Afrika,’ it’s a huge honor for this initiative.”