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While hosting the 2024 ESPYs on Thursday, Serena Williams marked the occasion by sharing some sage advice.

“If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar,” she said as the song “Not Like Us” began to play and Williams crip-walked on stage. As the crowd clapped in approval, she added: “He will make your hometown not like you, the next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forest Gump him,...

The rivalry between Kendrick Lamar and Drake was never just fun and games. But the moment the former dropped his chart-topping ‘Not Like Us,’ what may have begun as sparring turned into a full-fledged battle between two industry titans.

Kendrick Lamar at the ‘Pop Out’ show | Amazon Music/Twitch

Currently, Lamar seems to be leading the feud with a clear-cut win thanks to his electrifying ‘Pop Out’ show that left a trail of disgruntled Drake fans in its wake. And as if the concert itself – wherein a troupe of A-listers joined Lamar onstage as he dissed the life out of his arch-nemesis – wasn’t mortifying enough for Drake, fans have pinpointed something from the show that certainly will be.

Drake Fans Will Be Fuming After This Kendrick Lamar Stunt

Kendrick Lamar‘s Juneteenth concert, dubbed ‘The Pop Out – Ken & Friends,’ was nothing short of a historic moment in the music...

In his first live performance since his beef with Drake, Kendrick Lamar took the stage in Los Angeles on Juneteenth in a historic, electrifying evening filled with special guests, exhilarated fans, and continued jabs at his arch-rival.

The one-off concert titled The Pop Out — Ken and Friends, presented by pgLang and Free Lunch was jam-packed with a long line-up of artists, mostly from L.A. and California, who performed in Lamar’s hometown at the Kia Forum. From top to bottom, the entire event was a love letter to West Coast hip-hop culture,...

Kendrick Lamar may have begun his set during Wednesday evening’s Ken & Friends – the Pop Out with a performance of “Euphoria”— one of multiple diss tracks the Compton lyricist has aimed at Drake amid their recent rap beef — but the focus of the Juneteenth event was to showcase unity among West Coast talent, more than two dozen of whom made an appearance at the concert.

“This is unity, y’all just don’t know man,” Lamar said as a group photo captured the more than 25 artists from across L.A. who performed at the show while instructing everybody on stage to say, “One West.”

“Everybody got fallen sons but we’re right here, right now celebrating all of them, this shit is special,” he added.

.@kendricklamar brings out every performer for a group photo at #ThePopOut #KenandFriends pic.twitter.com/ZKt2KkXuzS

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 20, 2024

Among the friends...

Kendrick Lamar’s hometown Juneteenth show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum was a star-studded ode to West Coast rap that culminated with dozen of artists and entertainers joining Lamar for an unprecedented moment of unity on stage. The concert had been announced less than two weeks before, on the back of Lamar’s victorious nine-song-long rap battle with Drake.

The Pop Out: Ken & Friends was curated into three sections, the first collection of West Coast artists under DJ Hed, the second under storied “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, and the third headlined by Lamar.

When Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s multidisciplinary entertainment company pgLang was first announced in 2020, it was light on the details — both on what the company was meant to be about and how it would change Lamar’s career. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper had brought his energetic cousin Baby Keem with him, but pgLang could have been Kendrick making Tde 2.0, starting his own label, or it might have simply been his new toy. Kendrick Lamar has been many things — Black culture firebreather, divisively transgressive rapper, proletariat superstar — but usually, everything...

“I ain’t heard one bad Blxst song,” the California-native proclaims on his song “Pressure” — a statement that feels more like fact than hyperbole. The rapper/singer/producer (whose name is pronounced “blast”) has been stacking up hits since he combined his production skills and pen game. Hailing from the streets of Los Angeles, Blxst is set to heat up Indio when he hits the stage at Rolling Stone and Meta’s Creator House during the first weekend of Coachella.

His set follows the SXSW edition of the Creator House in March,...

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Pressing play on a song can transport you back in time and rustle up memories from your favorite movies, or maybe even a personal experience. We might not always notice, but musical soundtracks are a major part in the evolution of cinema. Although soundtracks tend to differ from film scores in that they’re usually inspired by a film vs. written specifically for it, but sometimes the movie soundtrack is just as big (if not bigger) than the film itself.

In celebration of the films released this year, we put together a beginner’s guide to seven of the best movie soundtracks of 2021 (so far). Find the list below, and for more music...

Jay-Z, fresh from his nomination to join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, shares his powerful collaboration with the late Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle.

The track, “What It Feels Like,” is part of the soundtrack to Judas and the Black Messiah, which tells the story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton’s assassination by the FBI. Nipsey kicks off the track with a verse about survival in the rap game, a sad foreshadowing given that he was killed in 2019. Jay-Z comes in next with a verse that calls out...

A week after guitarist-composer H.E.R.’s era-appropriate “Fight for You” was nominated for a 2021 Golden Globes Award for best song in a motion picture, the full track list for the soundtrack to “Judas and the Black Messiah” has been revealed. “Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album” drops this Friday, Feb. 12 via the Six Course Music Group together with RCA Records.

Executive produced by Hit-Boy (who appears on the new album with “Broad Day”), director-writer Ryan Coogler, Interscope’s VP of A&r Dash Sherrod and RCA Records SVP of marketing Archie Davis, the “Inspired” package features the first-ever collaboration between the late Nipsey Hussle and today’s freshly-anointed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee, Jay-Z, on the song, “What It Feels Like.”

In addition to Jay-Z, the Black Panther-themed, Fred Hampton biopic features a handful of legacy rappers such as Nas (with “Epmd”), Rakim (“Black Messiah”), and The...

H.E.R. has shared her new song “Fight for You,” a track off the soundtrack from the upcoming film Judas and the Black Messiah.

The film focuses on the events leading up to the 1969 shooting death of Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton, and “Fight for You” is infused with the funk-soul sound of that era with lyrics inspired by Hampton’s fight for social and racial justice.

“All the smoke in the air/Feel the hate when they stare/All the pain that we bare /Oh you Better beware,” H.

The Buffalo, New York rapper Benny the Butcher released a celebratory video for “Legend” on Thursday. The clip precedes Burden of Proof, a new album that arrives Friday with production from Hit-Boy and features from Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Queen Naija.

Burden of Proof represents a meeting of two prolific minds: Benny often shoots out two or three projects a year — this is his second of 2020, following Benny the Butcher & DJ Drama Present: The Respected Sopranos — while Hit-Boy oversaw all of Nas’ King’s Disease and eight songs on...

Chance the Rapper, Future, A$AP Rocky and Meek Mill lead the lineup for Rolling Loud’s 2019 Los Angeles edition. Lil Uzi Vert, Juice Wrld, Young Thug, Lil Baby and Playboi Carti will also headline the hip-hop festival, set for December 14th and 15th at Banc of California Stadium.

Other performers include Juicy J, Tyga, Waka Flocka Flame, Wale, Chief Keef, Trippie Redd, Curren$y, DaBaby, Megan Thee Stallion, Blueface, Kamaiyah, Polo G, Lil Tjay, Young Dolph, Nav, Buddy, Nle Choppa, Lil Tecca, Dom Kennedy, Boogie, Key Glock, Ski Mask the Slump God,...

Kehlani and 6lack meditate on romantic disconnect in their minimal new “RPG” video.

Throughout the clip, the duo appear in and out of a glass room filled with plants and old-school push-button telephones that go notably unused. As time passes, the vegetation grows wildly throughout the space — suggesting the passage of time without true connection.

“You told me I’m beautiful ’cause I told you you don’t tell me enough/You’re lying next to me ’cause I told you you don’t touch me enough,” Kehlani sings over...

Nipsey Hussle was surrounded by family and famous friends when he was pronounced dead at the hospital after being brutally ambushed by a gunman. Sources close to the slain rapper tell TMZ ... Nipsey's fam and closest pals in the music biz rushed to the hospital Sunday afternoon after learning he had just been gunned down outside his clothing store. Lauren London, Yg, DJ Mustard, Dom Kennedy, Karen Civil, twins Malika and Khadijah, and his bodyguard,...

Nipsey Hussle, the Los Angeles rapper who earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album earlier this year, was shot and killed in L.A. on Sunday, according to NBC, citing multiple law enforcement sources. He was 33.

Hussle, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, was one of three people shot outside of a clothing store he owned, NBC reports. Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department told NBC that the shooting occurred at approximately 3:20 p.m. in the 3400 block of Slauson Avenue. TMZ reports that one man fled...

Kehlani parties at a snowy mountain cabin in her laid-back “Nunya” video. The clip follows the vocalist as she hangs out in the woods, gazes out at a scenic lake and hangs out with friends who smoke and shoot dice. Guest rapper Dom Kennedy appears throughout, riding shotgun in Kehlani’s car and performing his guest verse on a balcony overlooking mountains.

Kehlani tweeted Wednesday that she was seven months pregnant while shooting the visual. “Thank u baby for da motivation, mommy was Froze,” she wrote.

“Nunya” appears on the singer-rapper’s upcoming third mixtape,...

All-Star Weekend is the glammed out event of the NBA calendar, bringing together showmanship, music, branding and basketball. EA Sports took a page from the All-Star Weekend playbook for the launch of this year’s edition of the classic franchise, NBA Live 19.

Attendees at Goya in Hollywood crowded an indoor court on Friday Night for a dunk contest scored by judges Nick Young, Jadakiss and Lil Dickey, followed by a performance from La hip-hop icon Nipsey Hussle, with a cameo from fellow west coaster, Yg. Meanwhile, gamers got to try out NBA Live, which included an updated LeBron in Lakers purple and gold.

Seeing a video game version of themselves is a childhood fantasy come true — and way to further connect with fans — for NBA players.

“I used to be the kid looking up to other athletes,” says Devin Booker, the go-to guard the Phoenix Suns signed to a five-year,...