City Is Back Up: Highlights & Reactions From Kendrick Lamar’s Juneteenth Concert In Los Angeles

Source: Amazon Music / Amazon Music

The world watched last night (June 19th) as Kendrick Lamar performed for the first time since his public feud with Drake. Click inside to see how everyone reacted to the epic night!

Unless you live under a rock, you know that for the better part of the past two months, the hip hop community has been enthralled with the beef between rap giants Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The two Grammy award-winners traded scathing shots back and forth for almost a month and left fans on both sides defending their goats. After much debate, public opinion crowned Kendrick the winner, especially after the release of the track “Not Like Us.” The DJ Mustard produced song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release and is still currently number six. Once the beef died down a bit, fans began to wonder what would be next. A video? A remix? Both?

Instead, Kendrick, who just celebrated his 37th birthday (June 17th), blessed his fans with something much better. Two weeks ago, he announced that he would be putting on a one-off concert entitled The Pop Out – Ken and Friends in Los Angeles on Juneteenth. Unsurprisingly, almost as soon as tickets for The Pop Out released, they sold out. Naturally, the demand for tickets was so high that everyone wasn’t able to purchase them. For all of those who weren’t lucky enough to snatch up tickets to attend in person, the concert also live-streamed on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. Even before fans stepped into The Forum, the atmosphere at The Pop Out , which was presented by pgLang and Free Lunch, was electric. It was a party outside as fans waited for doors to open. While people waited around, there were several merchandise stands, food and beverage stations and photo ops for them to hit up. On top of that, courtesy of HeadCount, there was a voter registration station, encouraging attendees to vote in November.

As entertained as fans might’ve been outside, it was nothing compared to the show they were blessed with once they stepped inside The Forum. The highly anticipated concert began with a set from Real 92.3 FM’s DJ Hed. He brought out a multitude of established and up and coming West Coast artists including Remble, Westside Boogie, Kalan.Frfr, BlueBucksClan, CUZZOS, Bino Rideaux and many more. Legendary Compton, California dancer Tommy the Clown even stepped out to take fans down memory lane with a special performance alongside his TSquad dancers. Hed’s set was a great introduction to some of the rising talent in California and a perfect warmup for what went on to be an absolute epic night.

The concert was titled The Pop Out, which was a play on one of the lyrics in “Not Like Us.” What better way to continue the night than by having the producer of the smash hit grace the stage? That’s right. DJ Mustard was next to electrify the crowd with an impeccable set. In addition to playing some of his own biggest hits, the Los Angeles native used his star power to bring out some of the superstar artists he’s worked with throughout his illustrious career. Before Mustard exited the stage, West Coast staples Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy, YG and Roddy Ricch and more performed some of their massive slaps in front of a packed house. The roof of the building almost blew off when Tyler, The Creator surprised everyone and blazed the stage. In one of the most heartwarming moments of the night, Mustard paid tribute to the late legendary rapper Nipsey Hussle. He had fans in attendance raise their phones and turn their camera lights on while he played three of Nip’s songs.

Even if the show ended after Mustard’s set, it would’ve been considered classic. Luckily, the main event was still on deck. After a brief intermission, the man of the hour popped out from the bottom of the stage and started his show in a way that only he could. The first song in Kendrick’s set was his six minute 24 second Drake diss track, “Euphoria.” The crowd rapped the whole song word for word as Kendrick set the tone for what the rest of his performance would be like. After the exhilarating introduction, Cornrow Kenny performed a plethora of his classics including, “DNA,” “Element,” “Alright,” “Swimming Pools” and more. Nostalgia hit an all-time high when Kendrick brought out Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q to perform some of their biggest tracks together. The reunion was truly special moment as it marked the first time Black Hippy has been seen together since Kendrick left TDE (Top Dawg Entertainment) in 2022. After Kendrick dipped into his catalog to perform some more of his timeless bangers and his controversial “Like That” verse, he brought out one of his mentors and one of the West’s most legendary musicians, Dr. Dre. To the delight of the crowd, Dre performed the undeniable classic tracks “Still D.R.E” and “California Love” with assistance from Kendrick.

As Dre was about to exit the stage, Kendrick questioned if he was going to say anything else before they continued the party. This prompted Dre to walk back, quiet the crowd and whisper “I see dead people” into the mic. Every single person in the crowd and watching at home knew exactly what that meant. For the first time ever, Kendrick began performing the song of the summer. The crowd completely exploded as they screamed the lyrics to the song at the top of their lungs. The song’s impact become more and more apparent as Kendrick performed it four more times. Each time the track restarted, it seemed as if the crowd got louder and louder. The most impactful thing that took place during the whole night happened before the fifth performance of the chart-topping diss track. Kendrick brought up all of the artists who had performed throughout the night (regardless of their gang affiliations) and got them to take a picture together on stage. “Let them see this. We put this together with peace.” Kendrick said to the crowd. After the picture, it seemed as if the whole West Coast music scene was on the stage performing “Not Like Us” in one of the most beautiful and important moments in recent hip hop history.

The Pop Out – Ken and Friends seemed to be a victory lap for Kendrick and a much needed uniter for the West Coast and the city of Los Angeles in specific. Throughout the show and after, fans couldn’t help but to chime in and give their opinions of the night, Kendrick, Drake and everything in between. Scroll down to check out some of the reactions to the biggest concert of the year so far!