Compton Restaurant Denies Blaming Kendrick Lamar for Profit Loss, Criticizes City Instead
The initial report clarified that local business owners were upset with the city for failing to prepare them for the influx of people, not Kendrick.
A restaurant in Compton has called foul on a report that claimed business owners in the city lost money because of the video shoot for Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us."
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times published an article that reported on several businesses in the Compton area that were negatively affected by Kendrick's video shoot thanks to city officials not properly preparing for the massive event. The article highlighted how workers at one restaurant in particular, Alma's Place, were met with "cars and chaos" while coming into work due to the influx of people who came to the shoot.
According to the owner of Alma's Place, the business "lost thousands of dollars," and city officials were to blame for the huge loss because they never gave notice that the shoot was going to happen. The owner is reportedly looking for Kendrick, his company pgLang, or the city of Compton to pay back the losses.
"It was really disheartening to have the electricity on and gas," the owner of Alma's Place said. "I'm just running everything and making no money. I literally was there for nothing, because the little money that I did make, I had to pay my staff with that."
Akademiks shared the post on his Instagram page, and a narrative began to spin: the owner of Alma's Place blamed Kendrick for their losses. It didn't take long for the owner to share a message on the post through the restaurant's Instagram account stating the writer misquoted their statement and issued Akademiks a warning for spreading false information.
"THIS ENTIRE POST IS MISQUOT3D AND PUSHING A NARRATIVE THAT WE DO NOT REPRESENT! People, please do not believe everything you read. Words have been twisted, and it's not right," read the statement. "The city should have made better decisions with notification to tax paying business owners. We, in no way have any negative commentary for Kendrick. This was a city issue! And @akademiks you better be careful about misquoting people and twisting words. WE NEVER Spoke To you, so how are you misquoting verbiage as fact!?"
Despite some businesses losing money in the area, some saw a significant boost in their respective establishments. Tam's Burgers #21, which K Dot and Mustard visited in the video, experienced a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in sales.
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