During his Pop Out concert, Kendrick Lamar brought together members of the Crips and Bloods, thereby fostering unity in Los Angeles.
After his event on Wednesday, June 19, K. Dot welcomed people from both sides of L.A.’s gang split to demonstrate a unified city alongside a host of West Coast heavyweights like Dr. Dre, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Tyler, the Creator, YG, and Roddy Ricch.
Kendrick Lamar also spoke to the crowd, saying: “I’m getting emotional over this shit. Since Nipsey Hussle passed away, we’ve been screwed up. Since Kobe [Bryant]’s death, we have been screwed up. We’ve lost a lot of friends to this music and street trash, but this is togetherness at its best. That stuff is special because we’re all together on stage. Each person on this stage has lost a soldier.”
Kendrick Lamar has attempted to mediate some peace between the two notorious gangs before.
Kendrick had both the Bloods and Crips represented on the cover art for his 2014 single “I” and even spoke about his thinking behind the artwork at the time.
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“Instead of throwing up gang signs like we used to, where I’m from, there’s a lot of gang culture and stuff like that, so I put a Blood and I put a Crip together, and we’re throwing up hearts,” he stated.
“…Sparking the idea of some sort of change through music, or through me, because I return to the city now and people treat me with the dignity and respect that this kid can, change something, you know, different from what’s been going on in the community for a while now”.
One of the noteworthy aspects of Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out performance was his beef with Drake.
At the end of the event, he played “Not Like Us” five times in addition to performing the diss tunes Euphoria and Like That.
In addition, Kendrick demanded that Drake return a ring that belonged to 2Pac, which he purchased at an auction for more than $1 million.
He even changed the lyrics of Euphoria to say, “Give me Tupac’s ring back, and I might give you a little respect.”