R&B/Hip-Hop

Kendrick Lamar‘s video shoot for “Not Like Us” is at the center of a controversy between the city of Compton, local businesses, and DJ Akademiks.

Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported that local businesses in the city of Compton lost money because officials didn’t give them enough notice that Lamar’s music video was going to be shot in the area.

Corina Pleasant, who runs soul food restaurant Alma’s Place with her mother, told the Times that “it was really disheartening to have the electricity on and gas … I’m just running everything and making no money.” Pleasant ultimately put the blame on city officials, saying the business lost around $2,000 thanks to a lack of forewarning.

DJ Akademiks then posted a screenshot of the story on his Instagram, with a section of the reporting written as the caption. As fans began criticizing Lamar for what happened in the comments section of the post, the official account for Alma’s Place vehemently disagreed. “THIS ENTIRE POST IS MISQUOT3D AND PUSHING A NARRATIVE THAT WE DO NOT REPRESENT,” the comment read. “People, please do not believe everything you read. Words have been twisted, and it’s not right.”

The comment continued, once again placing the blame on the city rather than on K. Dot. “The city should have made better decisions with notification to tax paying business owners,” it said. “We, in no way have any negative commentary for Kendrick. This was a city issue! And @akademiks you better be careful about misquoting people and twisting words. WE NEVER Spoke To you, so how are you misquoting verbiage as fact!?”

In a statement to the LA Times, the City of Compton said they will try to be better at communicating with local businesses in the future. “Businesses in Compton, especially small businesses, are the backbone of our city,” the statement said. “We want to continue to keep an open line of communication and do everything we can to support economic growth.”

While some business were hurt by the video shoot, another benefited from being featured in a scene. According to the owners, Tam’s Burgers No. 21 saw around a 40 percent increase in sales after the video came out. Lamar was also credited with helping Toronto Chinese restaurant New Ho King with new business, after he mentioned the restaurant in “Euphoria.”

Check out Akademiks’ post, and Alma’s Place’s response in its comments section, below:

Kendrick Lamar went viral once again, but this time it wasn’t because of a surprise diss track. UFC 306 happened over the weekend in Las Vegas for “Noche UFC” at the Sphere to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and a bunch of celebs were in attendance to catch the main event between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.

One of those celebrities was boxer Terence “Bud” Crawford, who was taking in the action as he was seated next to Turki Al-Alshaikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.

However, while the producers of the telecast got Al-Alshaikh’s name correct, they confused Crawford for rapper Kendrick Lamar when the camera panned to one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world. Of course, fans took notice and posted videos of the gaffe all over social media, with one user telling UFC they will be, in fact, “going to hell.”

Both Crawford and UFC boss Dana White had a laugh about the situation. Bud felt like it was done on purpose by some young, intrepid producer who’s been tapped in with the rap battle that defined the summer.

“To be honest, I think it was intentionally done just for laughter because how can you get us mixed up?” Crawford told TMZ. “All in all, it was funny to me.”

He also told the outlet that a bunch of people hit him up referencing when Kendrick name-dropped him in his Drake diss song “Euphoria,” where the Compton rapper told his rival, “I don’t like you poppin’ s–t at Pharrell, for him, I inherit the beef/Yeah, f–k all that pushin’ P, let me see you Push-a T/ You better off spinnin’ again on him, you think about pushin’ me/ He’s Terrence Thornton, I’m Terence Crawford, yeah, I’m whoopin’ feet.”

During the post-fight press conference, White also had some fun with the mixup and said he had already spoken to the boxer about the mistake. “I was talkin’ to Terence Crawford,” he said while laughing. “I don’t wanna call him … I don’t know who the hell did that and thought it was … Yeah, that was pretty bad. He did kind of look like Kendrick Lamar, though, let’s not f—k around … So, when I said we had a flawless production tonight, I take that back.”

In other K. Dot news, he dropped an untitled track with cryptic lyrics that seemed to be aimed at Drake and the rap industry at large where he proclaims that “it’s time to watch the party die.” This new song comes just days after he announced that he would be headlining Super Bowl 59 in February.

It’s a new era for Nicki Minaj. The Barbz leader announced over the weekend that instead of releasing the Pink Friday 2 deluxe, she’s decided to turn those songs into a completely new project with the third installment of the Pink Friday series.

Minaj was supposed to drop her PF2: Gag City Reloaded deluxe last Friday (Sept. 13), but the release date came and went without the set. Nicki clarified the album’s situation on Sunday (Sept. 15), when she revealed that Pink Friday 3 is on the way, and fans can expect another announcement regarding the project’s arrival in the coming weeks.

“Instead of doing a DELUXE to Pink Friday 2, I’ve decided to do a brand new album. I’ll still incorporate new songs like #Mamita & [The ‘anxiety’ song] for the remainder of the tour tho…and I’ll announce the new date within the next couple weeks,” she tweeted. “The new music is just too good to be thrown away on a deluxe album. Last night, the songs I recorded were just way too iconic. I love you guys so much. You know that. I know you do. I’ll still give you something leading up to the announcement, so no worries.”

Nicki continued: “PF3 is about to do PRECISELY wtf BEEN needed to be done. TRUST ME BARBZ. IM SO EXCITED. BLESSED. LOVED (by the Barbz) & fortunately (for the Barbz & me), I’ve learned A LOT since 12/08/23. PF2 means so much to me. As my 1st album as #PapaBear mama, it’s just very special to me for so many reasons you guys aren’t aware of. I put every song on there in a specific order, etc. So to honor that, I’m going to give it the respect & integrity it deserves as a beautiful body of work & not add anything else to it.”

The Queens rapper explained that “1 or 2 songs is no big deal but 5-7 songs feels a little sloppy right now (In my humble opinion).” She added: “This era has just been so successful, rewarding, satisfying, etc. after much thought, I want to be for CERTAIN that I am being intentional about every single decision being made around both PF2 AND PF3.”

Nicki Minaj is currently on the road for the second leg of her North American Pink Friday 2 World Tour. She’ll be in Dallas on Tuesday (Sept. 17), and then makes stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Miami and Raleigh, and wraps up in Queens on Oct. 11.

Pink Friday 2 arrived on Dec. 8, 2023, and debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 228,000 album-equivalent units, according to Luminate. That sum is the largest week for a rap album by a woman in the 2020s decade, and the biggest for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman in 2023.