"We don’t take sides" — Amazon's content head Kirdis Postelle says Kendrick Lamar and Drake's beef did not play a part in Pop Out concert planning

Amazon Music executive Kirdis Postelle claimed that Drake and Kendrick Lamar's recent feud did not impact the Pop Out show's planning. Lamar's June 19th concert, The Pop Out—Ken and Friends, broke multiple records for Amazon Music.

Speaking to Billboard in a July 18 interview, Kirdis Postelle, the Global Content and Artist Marketing Head of Amazon, revealed that the feud did not impact their concert planning. She also made it clear that the streaming company does not take sides. She said:

“This was about culture for us. I don’t think that [feuding element] even came into it. We don’t take sides. We didn’t anticipate, and neither did Kendrick, this kind of outpouring for the video on demand. We hadn’t planned for it. Everyone is actively — between Kendrick’s team and our team — figuring out what it’s going to take to get this up.”

The Pop-Out—Ken and Friends was a one-night concert hosted by Kendrick Lamar on June 19, 2024, at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. The show, which was announced two weeks before it was held, celebrated West Coast rap music while bringing together multiple rappers from that side.

Due to the high demand for tickets, Amazon Music live-streamed the entire concert via Twitch and Prime Video. Postelle revealed in the same interview that the company has since been trying to get the concert videos on its platforms for the public.

Postelle also indicated the entire procedure of planning the Pop Out show was hectic as they had only around 10 days to get everything in place. She continued:

“[We had to] get the marketing on point, Prime Video on point, to get [Amazon’s livestreaming partner] Twitch on point. To get all these teams rallied behind this one thing. There were some really late nights and some really early mornings trying to get this done.”

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Kendrick Lamar played his Drake diss tracks in the June 19th Pop Out show

Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out show was his first major concert since his heated feud with Drake. Lamar's setlist included sixty songs by various West Coast rappers, and the event was conducted to celebrate their music from that area.

In addition to Lamar, some of the viral concert performances included DJ Mustard, Tyler the Creator, Westside Boogie, YG, Jay Rock, Dr. Dre, and Roddy Rich, among others.

During the concert, Kendrick performed four of his diss tracks aimed at Drake: Not Like Us, Euphoria, 6:16 in LA, and Like That. Lamar performed Not Like Us five consecutive times. The name of the show was allegedly inspired by one of the lines from Not Like Us, where K Dot raps:

"Sometimes you gotta pop out and show ni**as"

K Dot's set began with him singing Euphoria, one of his diss tracks aimed at Drizzy during their recent feud. It was also noted that he changed the lyrics a little bit to take another alleged dig at Drake as he rapped:

"I'm knowin' they call you The Boy, but where is a man? 'Cause I ain't seen him yet / Give me Tupac ring back and I might give you a lil’ respect"

The rapper followed it up by performing some of his most popular numbers alongside the members of the former hip-hop collective Black Hippy. Some of the tracks in the set were Money Trees, DNA, and Swimming Pools. The Black Hippy collective members Lamar, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul reunited on stage after being disbanded in February 2022.

Lamar followed up with his performance of 6:16 in LA and his verse in Future and Metro Boomin's Like That, which started the much-discussed beef between him and Drizzy this year. He also collaborated with Dr. Dre on stage to perform one of the latter's hits, Still D.R.E.

Finally, K Dot ended his set in the Pop Out show with Not Like Us, with the entire crowd chanting the lyrics with him. Due to the demand, the rapper performed the song four more times, each time with great reception. He concluded his performance by saying:

"This ain't got nothing to do with no song, at this point, ain't got nothing to do with no back and forth records. It got everything to do with this moment right here, that's what this is about to bring all of us [together]"

After his Pop Out show concluded, Lamar released the music video for Not Like Us, which included multiple alleged digs at Drake in the visuals. The video has over 62 million views and counting.