TDE supergroup Black Hippy finally fulfilled fans' dreams and hit the stage together for the first time in a long time at member Kendrick Lamar's "The Pop Out" concert last night (Wednesday, Juneteenth). Of course, the team behind the show promoted it as an event "with friends," so guest appearances and special performances were par the course. Still, a lot of folks assumed that Ken would bring out Baby Keem and recent collaborators as well, but a more skeptical buzz when it came to whether Black Hippy would reunite. In retrospect, assuming that Mr. Morale wouldn't capitalize on this opportunity with his L.A. brothers sounds outright ridiculous.
Moreover, here's how it all went down. First, Jay Rock emerged during Kendrick Lamar's performance of "Money Trees" to deliver one of his best verses ever. Then, Ab-Soul came out to sing the beginning of Kendrick's "6:16 In LA" Drake diss, which he had posted a notable video of doing back when the beef was at a more heightened tension level. Finally, ScHoolboy Q came out to his K.Dot collab "Collard Greens." The quartet stuck around to vibe out to Q's "THat Part" (no Black Hippy remix verses, sadly) and to Ken's "King Kunta."
Black Hippy Returns At Kendrick Lamar's "Pop Out"
Obviously, they all popped out for the multiple performances on "Not Like Us," which was another heartening moment to see. If you remove the context of a Drake diss (a near-impossible task, as the setlist opened with "Euphoria" and also included the "Like That" verse), "The Pop Out" seems like a wholly positive and unitary event. It certainly was so, but Kendrick Lamar made it clear that it wasn't all fun and games, either. After all, duality is a Gemini's best friend.
Also, it was amazing to see some love and renewed respect for Los Angeles legends that the newer generation might be less familiar with. The biggest non-musical example of this is the appearance of Tommy The Clown, an L.A. dance legend that invented the "clowning" dance style that led to "krumping" during the 1992 Rodney King riots. Surely more info and West Coast history will emerge as a result of Kendrick Lamar's "Pop Out." Hopefully more celebrations of the culture can happen throughout the year that aren't tied to PDF file-downloading allegations.
