Kendrick Lamar’s The Pop Out concert streamed on Amazon Prime last night, Juneteenth. It felt like it was one of the biggest “live streaming events” in a long time, perhaps the biggest ever, if we’re talking about cultural impact. People are going to be talking about all of this for a long time, not just The Pop Out, but Kendrick’s whole energy over the past eight weeks or so. The Pop Out is already being colloquially referred to as Gangchella – because there were so many gang-affiliated performers there – but I will remember it as both the Super Bowl for Haters AND a wonderful, important moment for LA culture and California rap.
The first hour of the show was Kendrick highlighting lesser-known LA artists, who all got to perform for a few minutes all in a row. Then DJ Mustard got an hour-long set, with guest appearances from Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy, Steve Lacy and YG. One of the biggest surprises of the night was Tyler the Creator popping out for about two minutes to do a medley of “WUSYANAME” and “Earfquake” to a rapturous reception. Mustard also paid homage to Nipsey Hussle. It was all really cool and people loved all of it.
Then Kendrick gave himself the “third hour.” He OPENED with “Euphoria,” which was his big Drake-response song after Drake had spent weeks whining and crying about how Kendrick wouldn’t battle-rap with him. Kendrick’s setlist was so good – I would have loved to hear him perform “Meet the Grahams,” but I understand that it is probably much too dark for a celebration of LA’s music scene. Some songs in his setlist: DNA, Money Trees, Humble, Maad City, Alright, King Kunta, Swimming Pools and more. Then… he brought out Dr. Dre. Just in case you thought that the OGs of the LA scene didn’t 100% approve of all things Kendrick Lamar. Dre and Kendrick performed “Still Dre” and “California Love.”
Just as Dre was about to leave the stage, Kendrick called him back and Dre did the “pssss… I see dead people” line, and Kendrick started “Not Like Us.” “Not Like Us” is the last song Kendrick released in the “battle rap” and it’s the one which completely ended Drake. Kendrick is not only the certified boogeyman, he’s the certified hater. Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” SIX TIMES. In a row. With pyrotechnics. I hope Drake gets it now. I hope he understands that Kendrick has always hated him and that everyone is on Kendrick’s side. I’m putting some YouTube videos in here!
Kendrick Lamar’s fiancée, Whitney Alford, & his kids in attendance at the ‘Pop Out’ show 🫂 pic.twitter.com/EuT78A4LIr
— NFR Podcast (@nfr_podcast) June 20, 2024
Family Ties. pic.twitter.com/FjSBwpdYDw
— Amazon Music (@amazonmusic) June 20, 2024
THEY NOT LIKE US 📸 #KendrickLamar #NotLikeUs #Westcoast #LosAngeles pic.twitter.com/jDMyt2VQLM
— Armen Keleshian (@ArmenKeleshian) June 20, 2024
Screencap from Amazon Prime.
I also saw people calling it Hatechella 😭😭 Kendrick is truly number 1 hater, I am sure no one can hate like him. He is also so good live, one of the best performers of our time.
Wasn’t he so hot in that hoodie?
It was a throwback to one of Tupac’s last stage looks.
I wish Kendrick had a better matchup, Drake don’t have the lyrical chops.
Having reps from all the different gangs up on stage with no signs of tension was an amazing end.
I saw people calling it gangchella and Lapd’s wish list of people and I died.
You know one of those people had a warrant because of the full on face mask but he wasn’t missing the show!!
Plus Tommy the Clown. Kendrick was like don’t disrespect LA!
Love me some Kendrick Lamar
He’s funny. And petty. What a performer. His voice doesn’t miss and the way he got the audience to sing it back to him. And hold the a minor😂 All around epic.
Epic is right. That a minor part…damn Kendrick is the man – hot!!!!!
I’ve watched it 10 times.
That was so good I’m speechless👏🏽👏🏿👏🏼
I didn’t watch it but it kept showing up on my timeline last night so thanks for the videos (didn’t know it was on Prime).
Word on the YouTube streets is that Kendrick is making a video for Not Like Us this weekend and Dr Dre and Snoop were mentioned so it’s possibly a remix. It would be funny and very shady if Snoop and/or Dre adds a line or two on a remix, esp after Drake used AI Snoop and AI 2Pac on one of his diss tracks (without permission). Not surprised at the LA OGs supporting Kendrick esp since Dre had Kendrick as one of the artists performing during his Superbowl halftime shows several years ago.
The concert was a great Juneteenth celebration and the end when he brought out game from all over LA together in that moment was beautiful and something Nipsey was trying to do and what 2Pac did.
I loved everything about that concert! Lesser known local artists artists were given international exposure during DJ Head’s opening set, Kendrick performed brilliantly, and the unifying moment at the end was touching. I also loved that Drake was not mentioned once (other than Euphoria and Not Like Us being performed 25 times 😂). Great job Dot and West Coast!
Rap is not the main thing i listen to- i’m old, but i listen to some and i don’t tolerate disrespect for the artform- and by that i mean- if i am in conversation with someone and they are like- rap isn’t even music.
I tell them, you don’t have to listen to it, you don’t have to like- however. It has been an art form for 50 years and there is an important literature prize- the pulitzer prize. Musically, it goes to opera, to classical, to jazz compositions. Except Kendrick Lamar has a PULIZTER PRIZE for DAMN.
He is special, he is brilliant.
I watched the concert live last night and it was amazing. You can just feel the energy though the screen.
Incredible.
Dre’s “I see dead people” gave me chills.
I’ve never been to a rap concert, that was amazing , now I want to go
Can you insert gifs in the comments section?
*insert IceTPlayerHatersBallHateHateHateHateHate.gif*
This made me miss home. My cousin went to the Pop Up with her son. My family lived in Compton from the 1950s until the early 2000s.
My feelings about Dre are complicated by his treatment of women, but Kendrick is amazing.
I get why Dre is there, he is an LA legend and a big part of Kendrick’s career but he has a few “funny cases” himself.
I was never a Drake fan, so I admittedly only recently became fully aware of his culture vulture f*ckedupedness, although I do recall some talk about it a while back that I guess didn’t gain much traction.
But I always thought it was weird that he,
1. Got robbed as much as he did. I mean, it seems like Drake gets robbed ALL the time! And you never hear about ANYTHING happening to the people who robbed him 😂
2. That NO celebrity women were trying to be with him, except Serena Williams but that was really early in his career, so we hadn’t seen these disgusting patterns yet. And apparently he hooked up w/Rihanna who refused to claim him. That just seemed really odd for a rapper as SUPPOSEDLY popular as he was (emphasis WAS)
But I REALLY developed a hate-on for Drake when he went after Meghan Thee Stallion, and that was when I learned about his vile history of going after black women in his songs. Specifically, black women who had done NOTHING to him.
That was SO GOOD ! I live in France and i followed it during the night, reading kaiser on twitter 🙂