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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Prince J. Grimes

Kendrick Lamar’s The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert was an epic victory lap full of nostalgia and the best kind of pettiness

Kendrick Lamar Los Angeles Drake Dr Dre Russell Westbrook DeMar DeRozan Ahmed ScHoolboy Q AB Big Boss

There shouldn’t have been any doubt about who won this generation’s greatest rap beef after Kendrick Lamar dropped Not Like Us to unofficially bring his war of words with Drake to an emphatic end with a chart-topping song that continues to dominate the summer airwaves.

However, if there was any remaining sliver of belief Drake made out OK, Lamar extinguished it with one incredible night of performances Wednesday at the Kia Forum for The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert. It was a show so good I wouldn’t have believed the hype this morning had I not stayed up to watch it myself on the surprisingly crispy Amazon Prime Video stream.

The four-hour concert was more than a victory lap, though. Sure, Lamar used his set to hammer home the point he won, performing Not Like Us five (FIVE!) straight times to close the show, in addition to doing Euphoria and Like That. But it was also a night of nostalgia, unity and just all around good vibes.

It opened with performances from other West Coast artists before transitioning into a set by DJ Mustard, with performances from Tyler the Creator, YG and Dom Kennedy, among so many more. Then K. Dot finally did his thing and a good night got even better.

These were the best moments from Kendrick Lamar’s finale.

Opened with Euphoria (with new lyrics)

It didn’t take long for us to learn what type of time Lamar was on, because he opened his set with what is still in my opinion the best song to come from his beef with Drake. To my knowledge this was the first time Lamar ever performed Euphoria, or any of the disses for that matter.

The energy in the arena was palpable through the screen. And not only did Lamar do the whole six-plus minute hookless song in its entirety, he added new lyrics: “Give me Tupac’s ring back and I might give you a little respect.”

Black Hippy reunion and a Money Trees performance

After taking us on a journey backwards through his catalog, from DAMN. to To Pimp a Butterfly to good kid, m.A.A.d city, Lamar landed on his 2012 hit Money Trees, which set the stage for Jay Rock to perform his popular verse before diving into some of his other hits.

But that was just the start of what turned into a nostalgic reunion of TDE’s Black Hippy, with Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q eventually joining Lamar and Rock. And of course Q had to do some of his hits too.

This meant something to some of us!

The Like That verse

This was the song that kicked off the “big three” beef, so it was a big moment to see Lamar perform his verse. And it hit just as hard in concert as it did the first time we all pressed play on the Future and Metro Boomin smash.

Unfortunately, Future was one of the few artists not in attendance to do his part of a collab. That’s the only thing that could have made this better.

A Dr. Dre set with a twist at the end

It wouldn’t have been a legendary show without having one of the West’s living legends come out, and Lamar checked that box by having Dr. Dre do a couple songs in the middle of his own set: Still D.R.E. and California Love.

But Dre wasn’t done after that. Before he left the stage, Lamar asked him if he had anything else to say. That’s when Dre broke into a whisper that’s become synonymous with the metaphorical death of Drake’s career:

“Psst. I see dead people.”

And right on cue, Lamar jumped into Not Like Us.

He did Not Like Us (x5!)

This is when the grave dancing really begun, because Lamar didn’t do Not Like Us once, twice or even three times to bring his show to a close. He did it FIVE times.

And the first two times, he dropped the beat right as packed arena was singing “A minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.” And if you know the reference, you know the message he was trying to send to you know who. This was a victory lap unlike any seen before it.

He had the entire crowd singing it and everybody at home. There ain’t no coming back from this for Drake.

A moment of unity, including some NBA stars

There were some celebrities in attendance besides the artists performing, including Lakers star LeBron James. But when Lamar invited his L.A. family on stage at the end, Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan were among the locals to come up and vibe out to Not Like Us with Lamar.

And yes, that’s DeRozan who spent nine years as a Toronto Raptor, which had to be another shot to Drake’s ego. Look at how much fun Westbrook is having.

In the end, though, it turned into a beautiful moment, as Lamar had all these people from different backgrounds, hoods and cliques come together for a good time and a beautiful photo to cap it all off.

This was really a special moment in hip hop.

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