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The Game went on Instagram Live to address his absence from Kendrick Lamar’s star-studded Pop Out concert.
The Compton rapper said in the video also posted to his IG grid Thursday (June 20) that he felt the need to clear the air after seeing the chatter online about him not being invited. Many believe he went against Compton and sided with Drake after he dissed Rick Ross. He started things off in the 17-minute clip by addressing the DMs he’s received and the noise in the blogosphere saying that he’s choosing sides.
“When the f—k you heard me say a motherf—n’ thing about who I’m sidin’ with and this and that?” he asked before alluding to industry playing a part as to why he wasn’t there.
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“There’s a lot of f–kery that goes on in this industry,” he added. However, he did big up the affair saying, “I ain’t have to be there to think that the s—t was motherf—ing cool and major.”
On his relationship with Drake, he referred to the Toronto rapper as his “brother,” saying, “As far as my relationship with Drake? Drake is my brother … And my loyalty is with motherf—ers that’s loyal to me.”
Most of the speculation that the Compton rapper was siding with Drake stems from two recent instances. First, he posted an Instagram Reel of the Toronto rapper’s 2015 song “Energy” playing on a screen with the caption, “I got rap n—s that I gotta act like I like.” Many questioned the timing of the since-deleted post because Drake’s “Like That” response “Push Ups” had been released a few days earlier.
Then a few weeks later, The Game took to his Instagram Stories to take shots at Rick Ross for trolling Drake after he released “The Heart Part 6” in response to Kendrick’s “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us.” The West Coast rapper said, “It’s quiet today Wingstop must be closed on Monday’s [sic]” and then added, “It be the fat n—s with the skinny legs always running they mouth.” He then decided to join the 20 v 1 Rap Royal Rumble and dissed Rick Ross with the song “Freeway’s Revenge.”
He gave his reasoning on the Joe Budden Podcast afterward. “A n—a sitting around just trolling, n—a, keep that same energy, n—a,” The Game said. “You wann rap, you wanna troll? N—a, let’s do it. Bump heads with a n—a that really do this s—t.”
The Game is from the same city as Lamar and has collaborated with both him and Drake over the years.
Kendrick Lamar is riding high coming off the success of his Pop Out concert in Los Angeles. With the dust settling, Snoop Dogg is passing the torch to K. Dot and crowned him as the king of L.A. following the epic show.
Snoop took to his Instagram on Friday (June 21) from Canada and saluted what Kendrick was able to accomplish in unifying different sections of the West Coast under one roof at his Juneteenth show.
“Sending a big shout-out to K. Dot and all the homies from the West that stood together unified, organized in peace [and] love,” Snoop gushed. “That was fun to watch. Beautiful to see all my peoples come together.”
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It’s not exactly Jon Snow being deemed King in the North in Game of Thrones, but then came the coronation from Snoop: “K. Dot, you are the King of the West. That’s the kind of s–t kings do, we unite.”
As an artist who’s just about seen it all in his three decades in the music business, Snoop understood how special it was to have Kendrick Lamar preach a message of unity and have peace in L.A., even if it was just for one night.
Kendrick electrified the Kia Forum crowd with his first show since feuding with Drake. Lamar’s victory lap saw the live debut of tracks such as “Euphoria,” his verse on Billboard Hot 100-topper “Like That” and the Mustard-produced “Not Like Us,” which he performed five times in a row.
Drake beef aside, Kendrick Lamar appreciated just being able to bring gang members from different sets and various Los Angeles luminaries with him on stage. “It ain’t got nothing to do with no back-and-forth records,” Kendrick said during his show. “It’s got everything to do with this moment right here. That’s what this s–t was about. To bring all of us together.”
It’s fitting for Snoop to crown K. Dot as the king of the West after he passed the torch to him back in 2011 following the release of Section.80. “I’ma say this and I’ma mean this. N—a, you got the torch,” Snoop said at the time. “You better run with it, n—a, because it’s yours.”
Listen to Snoop Dogg champion Kendrick below.
Cardi B’s long-awaited sophomore album appears to finally have some traction. The Grammy-winning rapper took to social media to tease the title of her forthcoming LP. While stopping short of revealing the name, Cardi invited the Bardi Gang to guess what she had in mind in a post to her Instagram Story on Thursday (June […]
In the seventh episode of Billboard Unfiltered, Billboard staffers Carl Lamarre, Trevor Anderson and Kyle Denis break down Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out event and how Drake should navigate his next move after the show. They also dive into the new Verzuz and X deal, their favorite albums that have been released in 2024 in hip-hop […]
Doja Cat has brought the Scarlet Tour to Europe, and things have been running smoothly until a wardrobe malfunction derailed a part of her Amsterdam show. The “Say So” singer got noticeably frustrated during Wednesday night’s (June 19) concert at the Ziggo Dome when a white dress got stuck and Doja couldn’t unhook it, keeping […]
A little over halfway through the Juneteenth celebration at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night (June 19), an emotional T-Pain thanked the audience for being there.
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“We rehearsed once,” prefaced the artist, who did double duty as headline performer and the concert’s co-curator. “This is nuts that this is going so well, right? This is the dream of so many people and for y’all to make this happen … this is far beyond anything. I’ll be so pissed off if I wake up right now.”
Indeed, the evening did go well, as a very appreciative Bowl audience — in keeping with the cultural significance of the Juneteenth holiday — was treated to the many facets of Black music by both established and emerging artists. Segueing from gospel to R&B, hip-hop and points in-between, the two-and-a-half-hour show under the stars was packed with memorable moments, beginning with Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell delivering a riveting performance of the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Setting the Tone: Hosting something of this magnitude isn’t for the faint of heart. But comedian Affion Crockett proved he was up to the challenge as the crowd laughed right along. Skillfully keeping things moving throughout the evening, he set the tone early on with his opening comments, humorously acknowledging the makeup of the audience. “We love the bougies; I see the tablecloths and champagne [on the tables in the Bowl’s front rows]. “And at the top,” referencing those seated way further back, “you’re the ones that matter. You’re the ones whose bosses wouldn’t give you the day off. And I didn’t know I’d see so many white people in the audience. We’ve got company — and they come in peace.”
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Sisters with Voices: In addition to Campbell (who roused the audience with her latest, “Pray for Me”), Ledisi and Lalah Hathaway also showed out. Ledisi’s full-bodied voice and colorful riffs on her Grammy-winning song “Anything for You” commanded the audience’s attention. And after putting her own distinctive stamp on the Anita Baker signature song “Angel,” Hathaway and her sonorous vocals segued into father Donny’s 1973 classic anthem “Someday We’ll All Be Free” — a fitting exclamation point for the Juneteenth holiday celebration. Providing instrumental accompaniment throughout the evening was the Color of Noize Orchestra led by conductor Derrick Hodge.
Ones to Watch: Among the rising stars and newcomers also making their presence felt was D Smoke, who fired up the audience with tracks such as “No Commas,” “Black Habits” and “Common Sense” (even subbing for his brother SIR’s part on the song). Emerging female duo Flyana Boss also left a strong impression with their spirited performance of “You Wish” as did energetic Bay Area rapper LaRussell, who had the audience up on their feet after he jumped off stage and proceeded to walk up and down several aisles to high-five fans.
Blasts from the Past: Rounding out the evening were performances by fan faves from the ‘90s into the 2000s. David Banner, wearing shades and sporting a white goatee, rocked the venue with “Get Like Me.” Jordin Sparks stunningly reprised her hit “No Air,” while Lloyd pumped up the proceedings with his “Get It Shawty.” Then Tevin Campbell sparked a singalong to his enduring hit “Can We Talk.”
The Man of the Hour: T-Pain made his first appearance onstage after Ledisi’s performance. Wearing a raspberry-colored suit, the Grammy winner launched into a passionate interpretation of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” After wrapping the song to vigorous applause, he said, “This evening is special for me, for all of us and the culture. We’ve got to show respect for everything that came before us.” And that’s how the rest of the evening progressed: with T-Pain striding back onstage between performances by the other acts on the bill. And each time he did, he had the audience cheering, dancing and rapping/singing along to everything from “I’m Sprung,” “Up Down” and “Freeze” to “Buy U a Drank,” his rendition of Cee-Lo’s “Crazy” and Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss” on which he was featured.
Becoming emotional after Banner saluted him, T-Pain said in part to even more cheers, “In 2018, I decided I didn’t want a manager anymore, I didn’t want a label anymore. I’m doing everything independent. The only time I’ve seen this place [Hollywood Bowl} is in Tom & Jerry cartoons. So to be an independent artist and putting on a show like this is the wildest dream. So my No. 1 rule for everyone is believe in yourself; believe in that crazy thing. The only people that end up changing the world are the people crazy enough to think that they can.”
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We witnessed a coronation last night.
Kendrick Lamar is now unequivocally the King of Rap, and has officially entered god status on the West Coast.
He walked on stage dressed in a red hoodie with a white tee underneath and an iced-out crucifix draped over it, blue jeans, white, silver and red Nike Shox, and a red baseball hat. Why is this significant? The outfit was eerily similar to the one 2Pac wore during the 1994 Source Awards when he performed “Out on Bail” with his rap group Thug Life.
Pac, who at the time was dealing with a bunch of legal issues in his personal life, hijacked the Source stage while A Tribe Called Quest were accepting their award for Rap Group of the Year. As the story goes, this performance wasn’t planned: Members of Pac’s entourage pressed the person in charge of sound and made him play the track. The rapper and the rest of Thug Life then went on stage, snatched the microphone from Q-Tip and started performing the song, which caused a brief rift between 2Pac and Tribe. Whether the outfit was intentional or not, we quickly understood the message Kendrick was trying to send.
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The Compton emcee rose up from underneath the stage draped in red light and started his set with “Euphoria” — a song some said held little replay value. However, the lie detector determined that untrue, because the crowd at the Forum knew every single word and went bar-for-bar for the entire six-minute song. And, to circle back to the outfit he was wearing on stage, Kendrick added a new line to the song’s last verse: “Give me Tupac ring back and I might give you a little respect.” As if to say, “Hey, man, we can start to resolve this situation if you just return this West Coast artifact” — like a plot to an Indiana Jones movie. He also snuck in the first verse of “6:16 in LA”, and performed his “Like That” verse, adding insult to injury.
However, the highlight of the night wasn’t Black Hippy reuniting onstage or Dr. Dre whispering “I see dead people” after performing “California Love.” It was when Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” not once, not twice, but six times in a row. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand, like only a true MC could. They hung onto every word, even doing the rapping for him and finishing his verses at times.
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A crowd of people screaming “OV-Hoe” and calling you a “certified pedophile” already can’t be a good thing. But every time you thought things couldn’t get worse for Drake last night, they did.
When Dot and Mustard were in the middle of the third or fourth replay of the song, and NBA stars (and fellow L.A. legends) DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook went onstage and started doing their dance, that’s when I realized just how bad things have gotten for Drake. Every artist, celebrity and friend of Kendrick’s in attendance danced on the Toronto rapper’s proverbial grave in the name of West Coast solidarity. It seemed as if a big chunk of the culture chose a side.
I think some are underestimating the impact this can have on Drake’s overall appeal within the hip-hop community. I’m not talking about some kid in some suburban cul-de-sac, I’m talking about the kids in the streets. They’re the real tastemakers, and a lot of them who hold influence in Los Angeles were on that stage last night.
After the back-and-forth ended and Kendrick was crowned the de facto winner of the battle, many wondered how this would affect both artists’ careers. Would Drake still have the golden touch that he’s enjoyed for the past decade or so? Would he shake off this loss, much like he did with the Pusha T beef, and drop an undeniable hit like “God’s Plan?” Would he still be the top guy in rap? Would Kendrick take the W, but refuse the crown, and retreat back into his fortress of solitude until it was time to drop his next album?
Well, now we seem to have some answers: It’s too early to tell if The Drake Effect is truly a thing of the past, but his collaboration with Sexyy Red debuting at No. 44 on the Hot 100 and sliding from there is not a great look. Neither was the parody redo of “Hey There Delilah” that he hopped on for some reason.
Meanwhile, Kendrick has continued to do the opposite of what everyone, including Drake, thought he would do: Instead of vanishing, he stayed put and threw one of L.A.’s biggest rap shows in recent memory. Dot’s appeal in the hip-hop community was always A1, but after last night, it’s safe to say he’s now occupying the top spot in rap. Kendrick is the king. And he’s not the king because some critics and talking heads or kids tweeting from a suburban cul-de-sac said he’s the king. He’s the king because last night everyone — the streets, the music industry, the fans, the athletes — showed us that he is. They all popped out for their friend, their peer, their idol, their king.
“F—k that, this s—t making me emotional, man. F—k that, we been f—d up since Nipsey died, hold up. We’ve been f—d up since Kobe died, hold up,” he told the crowd as he wrangled everybody for a family picture. “Let the world see this. You ain’t seen this many sections on one stage keeping it together and having peace, hold up.”
Drake will be fine mainstream-wise, but he’s always wanted to be accepted by hip-hop, and right now he’s on the outside looking in. Last night proved Kendrick has more respect and cultural cachet than Drake can ever imagine having, and the must sting to an artist as massive and influential as Drake is.
Meanwhile, there’s not another artist in his generation that would be able to pull off what Kendrick pulled off last night. He had rival gangs on stage for L.A., for California, for Hip-Hop. Kendrick was running around like he was Pac fresh out on bail last night, and showed the rest of the rap game that no region is quite like the West.
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Kendrick Lamar unified the West Coast with his epic Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert celebrating Juneteenth on Wednesday night (June 19), which was one for the hip-hop history books with K. Dot performing his Drake diss track “Not Like Us” five times in a row to close out the show.
After performing the live debut of his nuclear guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” K. Dot welcomed his mentor and iconic West Coast rapper Dr. Dre to the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., as he rose from underneath the stage for one of the biggest surprises of the night. “I see dead people,” Dre whispered as Mustard’s signature Cali bounce on “Not Like Us” blared through the speakers.
In a red hoodie with jeans and a pair of Nike Shox (an outfit some fans compared to 2Pac‘s at the 1994 Source Awards), Kendrick had the 18,000-plus in attendance and rap world watching via Amazon Music at home in the palm of his hand.
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The raucous crowd sang along to every last word of the “Not Like Us” live debut. They held the “A-minor” Drake punchline for what seemed like an eternity while Lamar basked in what he curated.
But that wasn’t all. Kendrick ran the Drake kill shot back a second time and spun the block for a third round of “Not Like Us.” The fourth edition was the most special, as K. Dot proved West Coast unity about 15 miles northwest of where the Compton native grew up, while bringing various L.A. luminaries such as NBA stars DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook on stage, who essentially danced on Drake’s figurative grave.
Mustard, G Perico, Hit-Boy, Blxst, Steve Lacy, Big Boy, Westside Boogie and Lamar’s Black Hippy running mates joined the party alongside other gang members repping different sets across Los Angeles. Each took a turn dapping up Kenny on stage as he kept his breath control intact amid the distractions.
“This s–t making me emotional,” Lamar admitted while gathering the blended crew for a group photo moment that he wished could last forever “We been f—ked up since Nipsey died. We been f—ked up since Kobe [Bryant] died,” he poignantly declared. “This is unity at it’s finest.”
“Not Like Us” wasn’t the only Drake diss performed by Lamar for the first time as part of his explosive set. He kicked things off with the bristling “Euphoria,” which found him tweaking a lyric directed at the 6 God. “Give me 2Pac’s ring back and I might give you a little respect,” he spewed. Lamar also brought out Ab-Soul to perform his verse on “6:16 in L.A.” mixed into his run of greatest hits.
“Not Like Us” gave Kendrick his fourth Hot 100 leader as it debuted atop the all-genre chart on May 13 with over 70 million streams in the first week. The West Coast anthem sits at No. 6 in its sixth week on the Hot 100 while “Euphoria” holds at No. 47.
While gang violence and street politics have cut lives way too short, Kendrick Lamar united a city for one night where territory allegiances and banging sets didn’t matter in the name of hip-hop. “It ain’t got nothing to do with no back-and-forth records,” Kendrick said, dismissing his Drake feud. “It’s got everything to do with this moment right here. That’s what this s–t was about. To bring all of us together.”
Find more highlights from Kendrick’s memorable “Not Like Us” performance below.