There’s a lot to be said about Kendrick Lamar’s triumphant The Pop Out performance, including the fact that he opted to perform his Drake diss "Not Like Us" six times in a single evening. But another element of Wednesday’s streamed-on-Prime event that deserves discussion is its undeniable production quality.
One moment in particular, as seen below, has been championed an example of this quality in action. As Kendrick hits the "wop, wop, wop, wop, wop" portion of the Mustard-produced hit’s first verse, the at-home audience’s angle on Kendrick expertly shifts with each "wop," resulting in a dizzying but wholly effective viewing experience.
As swiftly pointed out by the ItsTheReal duo, the director of Kendrick’s livestreamed celebration was none other than Mike Carson, a name that should be familiar to those who watched Kendrick's Big Steppers Tour special in 2022. That special, directed by Carson and Dave Free, was filmed in Paris and is still available to view on Prime as of this writing. Damien Gravois' name should be mentioned here too, as it was also his work that led to the moment being widely praised by at-home viewers.
Fittingly, fans are calling for Kendrick's Pop Out to be met with plenty of love come awards season. See what people are saying below.
As for "Not Like Us" getting the six-times-in-one-night treatment, it’s not completely unheard of for a song to dominate an artist’s setlist for a particular show. It is, however most certainly a rare occurrence. Ye and Jay-Z quite famously utilized this approach with "N***as in Paris" during the Watch the Throne era. More recently, Travis Scott has been known to do the same with his and Playboi Carti’s Utopia fan-favorite "Fe!n."
