Kendrick Lamar’s hometown Juneteenth show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum was a star-studded ode to West Coast rap that culminated with dozen of artists and entertainers joining Lamar for an unprecedented moment of unity on stage. The concert had been announced less than two weeks before, on the back of Lamar’s victorious nine-song-long rap battle with Drake.
The Pop Out: Ken & Friends was curated into three sections, the first collection of West Coast artists under DJ Hed, the second under storied “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, and the third headlined by Lamar. Before Kendrick even took the stage, DJ Hed had many rising and established Los Angeles stars perform, like new Top Dawg Entertainment signee Ray Vaughn, all-girl rap group Cuzzos, male group Blue Bucks Clan and Westside Boogie. The legendary krump dancer Tommy the Clown and a large crew also broke it down and battled on stage.
Mustard played a string of his own hits from over the years, including Tyga’s “Rack City,” and 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different,” before Dom Kennedy, Ty Dolla $ign, Steve Lacy, Tyler the Creator, Roddy Ricch and YG joined him on stage to separately perform some of their biggest hits. Tyler’s “Earthquake,” Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” and YG’s “Toot It and Boot It,” and Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” especially made waves. There was a section dedicated to Nipsey Hussle in which Mustard played their collaboration “Perfect 10” as well.
After Kendrick hit the stage to perform “Euphoria,” “DNA,” and “Alright,” he was joined by his former TDE label mates and Black Hippy comrades Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and ScHoolboy Q. Jay Rock and Kendrick performed their Good Kid, M.A.A.D City collaboration “Money Trees,” as well as Jay Rock’s “Win” and “King’s Dead.” Ab-Soul and Kendrick performed his verse on Kendrick’s Drake diss “6:16 in LA,” and all four remained on stage for ScHoolboy Q’s “Collard Greens” and “THat Part.”
Promising to put on for the legacy of Los Angeles, Dr. Dre emerged to perform “Still D.R.E.” with Kendrick filling in at Snoop Dogg’s parts and introduced Lamar’s performances of the explosive Drake diss “Not Like Us” – of which there were five.
At the show’s end, Lamar made sure emphasize the concert’s purpose was not just a victory lap, but unification effort. “We done lost a lot of homies to this music shit, a lot of homies to this street shit,” he said, noting that the show featured artists from several different gang factions. He promised this was the first of more cross-city collaborations.