Kendrick Lamar’s hometown Juneteenth present at Los Angeles’ Kia Discussion board was a star-studded ode to West Coast rap that culminated with dozen of artists and entertainers becoming a member of Lamar for an unprecedented second of unity on stage. The live performance had been introduced lower than two weeks earlier than, on the again of Lamar’s victorious nine-song-long rap battle with Drake.
The Pop Out: Ken & Associates was curated into three sections, the primary assortment of West Coast artists underneath DJ Hed, the second underneath storied “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, and the third headlined by Lamar. Earlier than Kendrick even took the stage, DJ Hed had many rising and established Los Angeles stars carry out, like new High Dawg Leisure 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 big crew additionally broke it down and battled on stage.
Mustard performed a string of his personal hits from over time, together with Tyga’s “Rack Metropolis,” and a pair of Chainz’s “I’m Totally different,” earlier than Dom Kennedy, Ty Dolla $ign, Steve Lacy, Tyler, the Creator, Roddy Ricch, and YG joined him on stage to individually carry out a few of their greatest hits. Tyler’s “Earthquake,” Lacy’s “Unhealthy Behavior,” and YG’s “Toot It and Boot It,” and Roddy Ricch’s “The Field” particularly made waves. There was a piece devoted to Nipsey Hussle by which Mustard performed their collaboration “Excellent 10” as effectively.
After Kendrick hit the stage to carry out “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 carried out their Good Child, M.A.A.D Metropolis collaboration “Cash Timber,” in addition to Jay Rock’s “Win” and “King’s Lifeless.” Ab-Soul and Kendrick carried out his verse on Kendrick’s Drake diss “6:16 in LA,” and all 4 remained on stage for ScHoolboy Q’s “Collard Greens” and “That Half.”
Promising to placed on for the legacy of Los Angeles, Dr. Dre emerged to carry out “Nonetheless D.R.E.” with Kendrick filling in at Snoop Dogg’s components and launched Lamar’s performances of the explosive Drake diss “Not Like Us” – of which there have been 5.
On the present’s finish, Lamar made certain emphasize the live performance’s objective was not only a victory lap, however unification effort. “We carried out misplaced numerous homies to this music shit, numerous homies to this road shit,” he mentioned, noting that the present featured artists from a number of totally different gang factions. He promised this was the primary of extra cross-city collaborations.