The hip-hop icons reflected on what the Juneteenth concert did for the West Coast, rap and gang beefs.
Though it’s been months since Kendrick Lamar’s “Pop Out” Juneteenth concert put the proverbial nail in the coffin in the beef between him and Drake, fellow Compton legends like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are finally speaking their peace on the matter.
Sitting down for an interview with Complex released this week, the “Nuthin But a ‘G’ Thang” rapper applauded the “Not Like Us” rapper for taking his beef and using it as a jump off point to bring a myriad of alleged gangs from all over L.A. together peacefully under one roof on one night. When asked whether or not the local gangs have always been unified—just behind closed doors and not out in the open—Dre pushed back on that notion and cited Kendrick’s concert and subsequent music video as an impetus for that to change.
“I think Kendrick was able to bring that together for that moment. Hopefully that moment can move forward. I’m not sure if that’s gonna be possible or not because it’s gonna take just more than just one event to get that accomplished. Once it’s done, everybody goes home to their home teams,” Dre explained.
On the other hand, Snoop felt a bit more optimistic about it and praised Kendrick for taking something as “violent” like rap beef and flipping it on its head to instead promote unity for a groups of people who have historically not been able to be peaceful with each other:
A lot of neighborhoods have been uniting behind closed doors, but what Kendrick did was he united the whole city based off of him being a king. Taking this violent situation, which is a rap beef, and creating peace and giving the homie an opportunity to come onstage, to engage in his video, to be a part of his movement—and to also move like he moves.
Because if you’re going to move with Kendrick, you gotta move like Kendrick. 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. So that’s what this is about.
Additionally, the “Ken-effect” of unity seems to still be an overarching theme in the city of L.A. as evidenced by fellow Compton-bred rapper YG’s peace walk that took place last weekend and effectively ended a years-long beef between rival gangs in the city.
