Kendrick Lamar may have kicked off Wednesday night's Ken & Friends the Pop Out with a performance of “Euphoria,” one of several diss tracks the Compton-born lyricist has aimed at Drake in his recent rap feud, but the focus of the Juneteenth event was showcasing the solidarity of the more than two dozen talented West Coast artists who performed at the concert.
“This is unity. People just don't get it,” Lamar said during a group photo featuring more than 25 artists from across Los Angeles, before instructing everyone onstage to say “One West.”
“Everybody has a son that they lost and we're here now celebrating them all, which is special,” he added.
Among the friends who appeared on the show, held at the Kia Forum in Inglewood and simulcast on Amazon, were Tyler, the Creator, YG, Roddy Ricch, Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy and Steve Lacy. They performed to a setlist curated by Los Angeles producer DJ Mustard, and also took a moment to pay tribute to slain Crenshaw rapper Nipsey Hussle. The setlist also saw Lamar reunite with Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock, with whom he formed the hip-hop supergroup Black Hippie in 2008 on the Top Dogg Entertainment (TDE) record label. Dr. Dre also appeared, performing “Still DRE” and “California Love,” before Lamar whispered the intro lyric “I see dead people” and performed the Drake diss “Not Like Us” for the grand finale.
Lamar rapped the song four more times, and during an encore performance, he said, “You ain't gonna disrespect the West Coast? You ain't gonna mock our legends or copy us?”, quoting one of the song's standout lyrics, “Tryin' to strum a chord, maybe it's an A minor,” for each refrain, a double entendre to an earlier line in the song in which Drake claims to like underage girls.
Momentum for Lamar's first diss performance built throughout the night, as the crowd began chanting the “OV-hoe” lyric from “Not Like Us” over and over again. Early on, Lamar remixed one of the lyrics from “Euphoria” to include another jab at Drake, singing, “If you give me back Tupac's ring, maybe I'll have some respect for you.” He also rapped his verse on Future and Metro Boomin's single “Like That,” which sparked the current rap beef. Outside of these targeted moments, Lamar kept the energy up throughout the set, performing hits like “MAAd City,” “Be Humble,” “DNA,” “Element.,” “Money Trees,” “Swimming Pools,” “King Kunta,” and “King's Dead.”
The evening began with an opening performance by Los Angeles' DJ Head and 15 local Los Angeles artists. The lineup, which included Ray Vaughn, Kudzos, Westside Boogie, Zoe Osama, RJMRLA, Auggiezy, and Jason Martin, highlighted the purpose of the Juneteenth Showcase.
“I'm going to show you this,” Lamar said as he reunited performers from different Los Angeles neighborhoods and organizations onstage at the end of the concert. “We built this for peace… I promise this won't be the last of us.”