Snoop Dogg has officially crowned Kendrick Lamar the ‘King of the West’ following K.dot’s much-talked about ‘Pop Out’ concert in Los Angeles.
The ‘Pop Out’ went down on Juneteenth at The Forum, and in addition to bringing out some of LA’s superstars including Dr. Dre, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Tyler, the Creator, YG and Roddy Ricch, Kendrick also managed to bring unity as he brought members of the Crips and Bloods together on stage – and Uncle Snoop was more than impressed.
“Sending a big shout out to K.dot and all the homies from the West that stood together unified, organized in peace, love,” Snoop said in a video posted to his Instagram while he was in Toronto. “That was beautiful. That was fun to watch. Beautiful to see all my peoples come together. And K.dot – you are the King of the West.
“That’s the kind of shit kings do. We unite. We bring our peoples together.”
Snoop Dogg says Kendrick Lamar is the “King of the West” pic.twitter.com/ryssjvOPVZ
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) June 21, 2024
Despite having orchestrated the peaceful moment, Kendrick Lamar was not shy about how moved he was to see it come together.
As the gig came to a close, he addressed the audience, saying: “This shit making me emotional. We been fucked up since Nipsey [Hussle] died. We been fucked up since Kobe [Bryant] died. This is unity at its finest.”
He continued: “We done lost a lot of homies to this music shit, to this street shit. For all of us to be together on stage, that shit is special. Everybody on this stage got fallen soldiers.”
Fans celebrated the historic moment on X, with one person commenting: “Kendrick really uniting Compton pirus and Cali crips on one stage. Memorable Juneteenth already.”
Another said: “Kendrick a legend. He got crips and bloods on stage. It’s peaceful. This unity.”
One joked: “Kendrick’s hate for drake really unified the bloods and crips.”
As for Snoop Dogg, he became somewhat involved in the beef between Drake and Kendrick after Drizzy used AI to recreate the West Coast legend’s voice along with 2Pac’s for his controversial diss song “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The song was later removed following legal threats from Pac‘s estate.
On the track, a computer-generated version of Snoop rapped: “Dot, you know that the D-O-G never fucking doubted you/ But right now it seem like you posted up without a clue of what the fuck you ’bout to do.”
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Soon after the song went live, the Long Beach native took to social media and shared a hilarious reaction to his “feature.”
“They did what? When? How? Are you sure? [Sigh] Y’all have a good night,” he said in a brief Instagram clip. “Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck— what happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Good night.”
Some fans thought Snoop later co-signed “Taylor Made Freestyle” when he reposted it on his Instagram Stories along with the caption: “90s Hip Hop Forever.”
Other fans were more skeptical given Snoop’s long history with Kendrick that has featured several collaborations and a performance at the Super Bowl together.
