Kendrick Lamar, Entire Black Hippy Crew and Mustard & Friends All Up in Streams After Juneteenth ‘Pop Out’ Concert

26 June, 2024

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This week: It’s all things The Pop Out, as Kendrick Lamar and his many Friends see considerable gains following their All-Star Juneteenth concert.

Run It Back: Could “Not Like Us” Recapture No. 1 After Kendrick’s Epic Showcase?

The main event at The Forum in Los Angeles last Wednesday (June 19) was, of course, the first live performance from Kendrick Lamar since his unofficial (though rather decisive) victory over Drake in the biggest hip-hop feud of the decade so far. Kendrick’s 18-track set, which featured guest appearances from his Black Hippy crewmates and his longtime industry mentor Dr. Dre and was streamed nationally over Amazon Prime, seemed to capture the entire country’s attention on Juneteenth — and unsurprisingly, has led to major catalog gains for Kendrick Lamar. The rap superstar posted nearly 61 million combined official on-demand U.S. streams over the following three-day period (June 20-22), a gain of 31% over the three-day period prior to Juneteenth (June 16-18).

Of course, the most consequential bump was for Kendrick Lamar’s knockout blow in the Drake bout, the Mustard-produced, Billboard Hot 100-topping Song of the Summer contender “Not Like Us.” The song’s performance was the most anticipated part of the entire evening, and its landing as the show’s final song certainly did not disappoint — particularly because Lamar ran back its opening verse twice, performed the entire song three times, and even let the instrumental play as the closing credits rolled on the telecast. It apparently still wasn’t enough for his fans, as the song collected nearly 21 million combined streams over the three days following the concert, a 62% bump from the prior three-day period. (It should be mentioned that streams collected by a song over a normal Thursday-to-Saturday period usually are a little higher than those from Monday to Wednesday, just based on national streaming patterns.)

Could the bump be enough to send “Not Like Us,” currently the No. 6 song on the Hot 100, back to No. 1 for a second week? It will almost certainly climb back into the top five next week, and could even challenge to pass this week’s champ, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” — which is slipping a little in streams so far this week. But No. 1 could still be out of its reach, given the radio airplay disadvantage it has against Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help,” which reigned for five weeks before being displaced by Carpenter and has remained steady in sales and streams. Still, Lamar has an extra weapon at his disposal: the much-anticipated official “Not Like Us” video, which he was seen filming over the weekend. If he unleashes that before the tracking week ends, the extra attention could be enough to put it over the top.

Black Hippy S–t: ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock & Ab-Soul Also Up in Streams

One of the most triumphant stretches of The Pop Out came when Kendrick Lamar was joined on stage by his former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul for a Black Hippy crew reunion — their first appearance together since Lamar officially departed the label after 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Jay Rock joined first to perform his Lamar collaborations “Money Trees” and “Kings Dead” and his own “Win,” then Ab-Soul appeared to help Lamar on “6:16 in LA,” and finally ScHoolboy Q completed the set for “Collard Greens” and the Black Hippy remix of “That Part.” The trio then continued dancing onstage through Lamar’s performance of his own solo classic, “King Kunta.”

All three of the special guests were able to parlay their surprise appearances into major streaming gains in the days following the concert. Ab-Soul collected 291,000 total official on-demand U.S. streams over the three-day post-Juneteenth period (June 20-22), up 44% from the three days before the show (June 16-18), according to Luminate. Jay Rock was up 45% over the same period, to just over one million streams. And ScHoolboy Q saw a 31% bump, with over 4.3 million streams amassed. While the other big guest during Lamar’s set, West Coast godfather Dr. Dre, didn’t get as big a catalog percentage bump, his 1999 classic “Still D.R.E.” — which introduced his surprise appearance — was also up 19% over the same period, to over 1.2 million streams.

A Little Help From His Friends: Mustard, YG & More Openers See Gains of Their Own

The Pop Out was a star-studded event before Kendrick ever even took the stage. Preceding him in the Forum spotlight was fellow L.A. legend Mustard — producer behind “Not Like Us,” as well as an innumerous number of West Coast classics over the past 15 years — who began by reminding the crowd of some of the eternal bangers he was responsible for (including Tyga’s “Rack City,” 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different” and Big Sean’s “I Don’t F–k With You.”) He then brought out a succession of local special guests, some of whom (like Dom Kennedy and Tyler, the Creator) performed songs he took no part in, and some of whom (namely set closers Roddy Ricch and YG) exclusively played songs he helmed.

Many of those artists saw big bumps from their appearances at the televised event over the three days following the event (June 20-22) from the three days prior (June 16-18), and many of the songs performed were particular beneficiaries. Tyler racked up gains for the two songs he performed, “Wusyaname” (up 48% to 657,000) and “Earfquake” (up 28% to 1.5 million), as did Dom Kennedy for his pair of picks, “When I Come Around” (up 142% to 102,000) and “My Type of Party” (up 127% to 69,000), according to Luminate. And YG, who finished off the Mustard set with a selection of classics, saw his entire catalog lift 35%, to nearly four million streams over the three-day period.

Mustard also saw a huge spike for the song that made for the emotional centerpiece of his set: “Perfect Ten,” his collab with the late Nipsey Hussle, whose presence still hung over the entire West Coast celebration. The song was up 127% to 123,000 streams over the three-day period.