No Lamar mural plans

THE Dunedin City Council has poured cold water on calls for a mural of rapper Kendrick Lamar before his visit to the city.

This comes after there was strong support for the council to follow up its more than $8000 mural of Ed Sheeran with one of Lamar, who is playing at Forsyth Barr Stadium on July 17.

Enterprise Dunedin economic development programme manager Fraser Liggett said yesterday there were no plans for a mural.

“At this point there are no plans to commission a mural to mark Kendrick Lamar’s concert in Dunedin. However, opportunities for highlighting his visit will be explored with the Enterprise Dunedin marketing team in conjunction with other city stakeholders,’’ Mr Liggett said.

This comes after calls for a mural were made just after it was announced Lamar was playing in Dunedin.

Student radio station Radio One asked in a tweet whether Lamar deserved the mural treatment, saying he had won 12 Grammys compared with Sheeran’s four.

Otago Daily Times music reviewer and rap fan John Hayden said Lamar was more deserving than Sheeran.

‘‘If we’re going to do a mural of Ed Sheeran then I think we need to erect a statue of Kendrick,’’ Mr Hayden said.

Almost twothirds of the more than 2000 readers who responded to a poll on the ODT website supported the city marking his visit with a mural.

Philip Morey supported the plan on the ODT Facebook page, saying: ‘‘Kendrick now has a Pulitzer Prize, so yep, I’d say he’s more deserving than Ed.’’