On Wednesday, Juneteenth, Kendrick Lamar threw himself a party. Dubbed “the Pop Out: Ken and Friends,” the concert—held at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles—served as a celebration of West Coast hip-hop, and a “ victory lap ” for Lamar after he ostensibly won his beef with Drake following the release of “Not Like Us.” Or, as one X user called the show , “Kendrick Lamar Presents: I Hate Drake the Musical.
” The Pop Out, which was livestreamed on Amazon Prime Video , trended Wednesday and into Thursday, and although much of the chatter revolved around the performances by Tyler, the Creator, Steve Lacy , and Dr. Dre, even more seemed to focus on Lamar using the show as a chance to get in another jab at his rival. “Kendrick really threw his own Hatechella lol” wrote one X user, “this is the hateration and holleration that Mary J.
Blige was talking about.” The X account for the Public Enemies Podcast wrote “this level of hate will never be duplicated.” Ultimately, it wasn’t about hate; Lamar expressed several times that the show was meant to be a moment of unity, adding that it had “nothing to do with no song at this point, ain’t got nothing to do with no back and forth records.
” He did, though, perform “Not Like Us” upwards of four times, something that in turn fueled the online furor over his beef with Drake even more. Lamar’s show was just the latest in a series of concerts this summer that have taken viral internet culture moments and br.