Revisiting Kendrick Lamar’s Juneteenth ‘Pop Out’ Concert

One yr in the past right this moment, (June nineteenth) the world watched as Kendrick Lamar carried out for the primary time since his public feud with Drake. Proceed studying to refresh your reminiscence and see how everybody reacted to the epic evening!

Until you reside beneath a rock, you already know that final yr the hip hop neighborhood was enthralled with the meat between rap giants Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The 2 Grammy Award-winners traded scathing photographs backwards and forwards for nearly a month and left followers on each side defending their goats. After a lot debate, public opinion topped Kendrick the winner, particularly after the discharge of the observe “Not Like Us.” The DJ Mustard produced track hit primary on the Billboard Sizzling 100 upon its launch and spent the higher a part of the final yr occupying the chart. As soon as the meat died down a bit, followers started to marvel what can be subsequent. A video? A remix? Each?

As an alternative, Kendrick, who simply had celebrated his thirty seventh birthday two days prior, blessed his followers with one thing a lot better, a one-off live performance entitled The Pop Out – Ken and Pals in Los Angeles on Juneteenth. Unsurprisingly, virtually as quickly as tickets for The Pop Out launched, they offered out. Naturally, the demand for tickets was so excessive that everybody wasn’t in a position to buy them. For all of those that weren’t fortunate sufficient to grab up tickets to attend in individual, the live performance additionally live-streamed on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. Even earlier than followers stepped into The Discussion board, the environment at The Pop Out, which was offered by pgLang and Free Lunch, was electrical. It was a celebration exterior as followers waited for doorways to open. Whereas folks waited round, there have been a number of merchandise stands, meals and beverage stations and picture ops for them to hit up. On high of that, courtesy of HeadCount, there was a voter registration station, encouraging attendees to vote in November.

As entertained as followers may’ve been exterior, it was nothing in comparison with the present they have been blessed with as soon as they stepped inside The Discussion board. The extremely anticipated live performance started with a set from Actual 92.3 FM’s DJ Hed. He introduced out a mess of established and up and coming West Coast artists together with Remble, Westside Boogie, Kalan.Frfr, BlueBucksClan, CUZZOS, Bino Rideaux and lots of extra. Legendary Compton, California dancer Tommy the Clown even stepped out to take followers down reminiscence lane with a particular efficiency alongside his TSquad dancers. Hed’s set was a terrific introduction to a few of the rising expertise in California and an ideal warmup for what went on to be an absolute epic evening.

The live performance was titled The Pop Out, which was a play on one of many lyrics in “Not Like Us.” What higher approach to proceed the evening than by having the producer of the smash hit grace the stage? That’s proper. DJ Mustard was subsequent to affect the group with an impeccable set. Along with taking part in a few of his personal largest hits, the Los Angeles native used his star energy to carry out a few of the famous person artists he’s labored with all through his illustrious profession. Earlier than Mustard exited the stage, West Coast staples Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy, YG and Roddy Ricch and extra carried out a few of their huge slaps in entrance of a packed home. The roof of the constructing virtually blew off when Tyler, The Creator shocked everybody and blazed the stage. In some of the heartwarming moments of the evening, Mustard paid tribute to the late legendary rapper Nipsey Hussle. He had followers in attendance increase their telephones and switch their digicam lights on whereas he performed three of Nip’s songs.

Even when the present ended after Mustard’s set, it might’ve been thought of traditional. Fortunately, the principle occasion was nonetheless on deck. After a quick intermission, the person of the hour popped out from the underside of the stage and began his present in a manner that solely he may. The primary track in Kendrick’s set was his six minute 24 second Drake diss observe, “Euphoria.” The gang rapped the entire track phrase for phrase as Kendrick set the tone for what the remainder of his efficiency can be like. After the exhilarating introduction, Cornrow Kenny carried out a plethora of his classics together with, “DNA,” “Ingredient,” “Alright,” “Swimming Swimming pools” and extra. Nostalgia hit an all-time excessive when Kendrick introduced out Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q to carry out a few of their largest tracks collectively. The reunion was actually a particular second because it marked the primary time Black Hippy had been seen collectively since Kendrick left TDE (High Dawg Leisure) in 2022. After Kendrick dipped into his catalog to carry out some extra of his timeless bangers and his controversial “Like That” verse, he introduced out one in all his mentors and one of many West’s most legendary musicians, Dr. Dre. To the delight of the group, Dre carried out the simple traditional tracks “Nonetheless D.R.E” and “California Love” with help from Kendrick.

As Dre was about to exit the stage, Kendrick questioned if he was going to say anything earlier than they continued the social gathering. This prompted Dre to stroll again, quiet the group and whisper “I see lifeless folks” into the mic. Each single individual within the crowd and watching at residence knew precisely what that meant. For the primary time ever, Kendrick started performing the track of the summer time. The gang utterly exploded as they screamed the lyrics to the track on the high of their lungs. The track’s impression grow to be increasingly obvious as Kendrick carried out it 4 extra instances. Every time the observe restarted, it appeared as if the group obtained louder and louder. Essentially the most impactful factor that befell throughout the entire evening occurred earlier than the fifth efficiency of the chart-topping diss observe. Kendrick introduced up all the artists who had carried out all through the evening (no matter their gang affiliations) and obtained them to take an image collectively on stage. “Allow them to see this. We put this along with peace.” Kendrick mentioned to the group. After the image, it appeared as if the entire West Coast music scene was on the stage performing “Not Like Us” in some of the stunning and necessary moments in current hip hop historical past.

The Pop Out – Ken and Pals was a deserved victory lap for Kendrick and a a lot wanted uniter for the West Coast and town of Los Angeles in particular. All through the present and after, followers couldn’t assist however to chime in and provides their opinions of the evening, Kendrick, Drake and all the pieces in between. One yr later, take a look at a few of the reactions to the most important live performance of final yr!