GLENDALE, Ariz. — In the last year, big-tent hip-hop concerts have taken to the skies, making the space above the arena floor as important as the stage. In 2016, Kanye West performed on a platform dangling perilously low above a moshing crowd, and Drake filled the empty arena air with a sinuous light show. Now stage diving is the thing, peaking in May when Lil Uzi Vert climbed to the top of a tower at a Miami festival and flew into a rapturous crowd.

In part, this reflects the rappers’ outsized ambition and latent boredom with simple symbols of excess. Rather than become shinier, or more expensive, these concerts have become gaseous, expanding to fill the volume provided.

Kendrick Lamar, rap’s most modest, skeptical and monastic superstar, is having none of that.

On Wednesday night, at the Gila River Arena in this northwestern Phoenix suburb, Mr. Lamar began his nationwide arena tour with a show that was far simpler than those of his peers: For the most part, one man on one stage, making the vast room feel tiny and intensely focused.

That has a lot to do with the nature of Mr. Lamar’s art, which is anti-flamboyant, interior and complex. He is a blazing technical rapper and a relentless searcher, and as he has become more famous and successful, he hasn’t backed away from those traits.