Dr Dre claims Kendrick Lamar united Compton with Drake diss track
As both one of Compton’s most famous sons and a legend of hip hop, the words of Dr Dre carry plenty of weight when he passes judgment on anything relating to the city of his birth, with the rapper and music mogul praising Kendrick Lamar for bringing a sense of unity with his recent Pop Out show.
The one-off concert, The Pop Out: Ken and Friends, was held on June 19th in celebration of Juneteenth and Black Music Month and marked Lamar’s first major live performance following his ongoing feud with Drake. It also saw the ‘Not Like Us’ being performed in front of a crowd for the first time, with Lamar deciding to go all-out by playing it five consecutive times in its entirety.
Dre introduced Lamar before his five-time ‘Not Like Us’ performance, and he explained how it was a moment with much greater importance than those in attendance may have initially realised. It was a monumental moment for not only Lamar’s career and West Coast hip hop in general, but Dre also believes it was a landmark for Compton itself.
In an interview with Complex, Dre was asked about the sense of unity – or lack thereof – in modern Compton, tied to Vince Staples suggesting the local groups were more unified than they tend to be portrayed in the mainstream media, with the Pop Out show proving it.
Dre wasn’t necessarily in agreement, but he did share his hopes that change was forthcoming. “I’m not sure if that’s true or not,” he said in response to Staples. “But I think Kendrick was able to bring that together for that moment. Hopefully, that moment can move forward.”
With first-hand experience growing up on the city’s streets, Dre isn’t entirely convinced that full-scale change is ever going to happen, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t maintaining an optimistic outlook. “I’m not sure if that’s possible or not,” he reflected. Because it’s going to take more than just one event to get that accomplished.”
Dre suggested that “once it’s done, everybody goes home to their home teams, and then they go back,” even if he saw Pop Out as something different. “It does feel different,” he admitted. “But hopefully, it can continue.” Snoop Dogg would echo those sentiments, underlining that a star of Lamar’s magnitude is required to make a significant change.
“What Kendrick did was he united the whole city based off of him being a king,” the unofficial mascot of the Olympics elaborated. “Creating peace, giving homies the opportunity to come on stage. He’s about peace. He’s about love. He ain’t from no gang. He’s from a city full of gangs, and he unites cities.”