Kendrick Lamar “Not Like Us” at The Pop Out – Ken & Friends

Kendrick Lamar celebrated Juneteenth with his highly-anticipated concert, The Pop Out – Ken & Friends at a sold-out Kia Forum Arena in Inglewood, California last night (June 19).

The nearly four-hour concert kicked off with a set by DJ Hed, who brought out some of West Coast’s finest from Jason Martin (“Like Whaaat”) and Westside Boogie (“Silent Ride”) to Kalan.FrFr and G Perico (“Right Wit It”) and Ray Vaughn (“Problems”), and many more.

Mustard followed soon after and blessed the stage with surprise guests including Ty Dolla Sign (“Paranoid”), Dom Kennedy (“My Type Of Party”, “When I Come Around”), Steve Lacy (“Static”, “Bad Habit”), Tyler The Creator (“WusYaName”, “Earfquake”), Roddy Ricch (“Racks In The Middle”, “Die Young,” “The Box,” “Ballin’”), YG (“BPT”, “My Nigga”), and more.

The man of the hour, Kendrick Lamar finally graced the stage for an epic set full of hits running through his catalogue beginning with a live debut of “Euphoria”, one of his Drake diss-records. From there, Kung Fu Kenny segued into his “DNA.”, “ELEMENT.”, “Alright”, “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, “King Kunta”, “m.A.A.d city”, and many more.

His Black Hippy crew soon joined K.Dot on stage including ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul who assisted on the live debut of “6:16 In LA”, his second Drake-diss record of the evening. Kendrick also gave a live debut performance of his verse from Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That”.

Kendrick paid homage to the legends of the West by bringing out Dr. Dre, who performed “Still D.R.E.”, and “California Love”. The Doc helped Kenny usher in a live debut performance of the third Drake-diss record of the evening, “Not Like Us”.

Kendrick taunted his nemesis by performing the record 5 times straight and brought out plethora of celebrity attendees, previous performers, and more on stage. As his “Not Like Us” performances continued, the Compton rapper also brought selected individuals from the crowd and preached unity within the community and posed for an epic photo opp.

“Let the world see this,” said Kendrick in front of over 17,000 in attendance. “For all of us to be on this stage together, unity, from Eastside, LA, Crips, Bloods, Piru. This is special, man. We put this together just for ya’ll.

Kendrick continued, “This ain’t got nothing to do with no song at this point. Ain’t got nothing to do with no back and forth records. It’s got everything to do with this moment right here. That’s what this was about. To bring all of us together.”

The Pop Out – Ken & Friends was streamed live online through Prime Video and the Amazon Music Twitch channel.

Photo: Armen Keleshian