At 8:01 PM PST today (March 24), Kendrick Lamar planted a cryptic tweet on his timeline. “9pm. meet me here. 8950 Sunset Blvd. 930pm. meet me here. 8466 Melrose Ave,” the TDE rapper Tweeted.
The tweet was quickly met with thousands of likes and retweets and a crowd subsequently gathered at the empty lot along West Hollywood’s famous Sunset Strip where fans were met with gusting winds, police on BMW motorcycles and a gaggle of people wearing TDE sweatshirts.
Soon thereafter, an 18 wheeler with a flat bed filled of musicians moved in amongst the crowd. It lit up to reveal Kendrick Lamar with a live band, first starting out by playing “Money Trees” and then moving into other songs from good kid, m.A.A.d city. With #GetPumped sprawled along the side of the truck, Missinfo.tv reports that the concert was in conjunction with Reebok’s #GetPumped campaign.
The semi then moved out onto Sunset Boulevard heading East as fans ran behind the moving truck as police, camera men and TDE personnel followed. The concert culminated at 8466 Melrose Ave.
The concert was the latest in what has been a worldwind two weeks of surprise moves regarding Kendrick Lamar.
First, TDE’s Anthony “Top Dog” Tiffith announced the surprise release of Kendrick’s sophomore album, To Pimp A Butterfly, more than a week before its official release date of March 23.
Then, the clean version of the project was released, followed by the explicit edition soon afterward. Simultaneously, certain people that had pre-ordered the album were having trouble downloading the album. The album was then removed from iTunes altogether.
Kendrick Lamar’s tweet from today is as follows:
HipHopDX captured exclusive footage of the event that can be viewed below.
(March 24, 2015)
UPDATE: Kendrick Lamar’s impromptu performance in Hollywood last night (March 24) was in fact part of a Reebok-sponsored run.
The athletic apparel brand has issued a press release clarifying the purpose of Kendrick’s unexpected appearance on the streets of Los Angeles.
Hundreds of runners — initially unaware of Lamar’s performance — gathered at a parking lot at Sunset and Hilldale for the scheduled Reebok run.
They were then surprised by Kendrick as he and a full band rolled up on a 16-wheeler, flatbed truck to provide live music for their fitness activity.
Kendrick and the runners wore Reebok’s latest training shoe, the ZPump Fusion, which was released March 10.
The participants ran up Sunset Boulevard, then turned right on North Crescent Heights Boulevard and took another right on Melrose before finishing their trek at the Reebok Lounge.
Later, Kendrick hosted an after party at the Reebok Lounge for all of the runners who finished.
Check out images from the event below:
Run Dre Run!!
Wish I was there
Kendrick is no drake most people be like who is this dumbo looking nerd.
You’re right. Kendrick is better than Drake. And you’re wrong about that last sentence. Most people be like “this guy makes dope music.”
How is kendrick better than drake. Drake has kendrick in numbers and popularity. All your needy opinions never matter while facts do.
LOL, you’re clearly a Drake fan boy. Drake is more mainstream than Kendrick. FACT. Drake been in the game longer than Kendrick. FACT. Drkae might even have more sales than Kendrick, but is it cause he can actually out rap Kendrick or is it because people don’t always wanna hear someone rapping about their life growing up or just social issues in general? Drake doesn’t even come near Kendrick when it comes to spitting lyricism you know it, critics know it, everyone knows it.
HAHA! Trolling? Man, it must hurt your butthole so bad with all the drama happening at YMCB, and Wayne about to jump ship, the crumbling of a shitty empire LOL! TDE running this rap game now girl. Wayne falling off super hard; and real talk…Corey Gunz got harder bars than Drake and Wayne together.
again like i said since when does a bunch of internet nerds opinions matter when comparing artists. Take a look at all the legends in rap eminem,tupac,biggie,nas,jay z, lil wayne etc. They all sold big numbers and was popular as hell. Kendrick isnt even in the same boat of popularity or numbers as these legends while drake is. Drake is the new upcoming legend. Kendrick couldn’t even outsell J cole hahaha what a joke. Numbers and consistancy do matter in hiphop because if your not popular you will not have an impact and you will be forgotton. All you hipster nerds need to learn that in an arguement your opinions don’t mean shit. Facts do on the other hand.
@Drake runs rap Your comments are nothing but opinion, nothing factual. Numbers don’t make legends, great music does and all of those people you listed except for Wayne made great music. Drake is not even close to being a legend when his music is average at best. Kendrick has Drake beat with 2 classic records. In terms of sales, Kendrick’s last album went platinum and this new one outdid it in the first week and will outsell it total. Still, numbers are meaningless, especially when Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Ja Rule, and Nelly also did numbers.
A lot of these legends didn’t do big numbers on their first couple of albums.
haha at you calling people nerds. you’re getting all worked up trying to protect drake and shit while everyone just laughing at you.
Looks kinda high or tipsy in that last pic. I know he rarely does both, but maybe indulged just a little bit for his album completion?
you gotta admit, that’s pretty dope.
creative idea, I like it.. probly more than I like TPAB.. and I know I’m probly the only one who doesn’t think it’s a 5-star album… 4 for sure, but it’s far from perfect imo
this is some shit you can respect.