Kendrick Lamar, Entire Black Hippy Crew and Mustard & Friends All Up in Streams After Juneteenth 'Pop Out' Concert

Welcome to Billboard Pro's Upward trends newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the attention of the music industry. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all could become ubiquitous with the flash of a TikTok clip.

This week: It's all things The Pop Out, as Kendrick Lamar and his many friends see major gains following their All-Star Juneteenth concert.

Run It Back: Could “Not Like Us” Recapture No. 1 After Kendrick's Epic Showcase?

The main event at The Forum in Los Angeles last Wednesday (June 19) was, of course, Kendrick Lamar's first live performance since his unofficial (albeit rather decisive) victory over Drake in the biggest hip-hop feud of the decade until moment. . Kendrick's 18-track set, which featured appearances from his Black Hippy bandmates and longtime industry mentor Dr. Dre and aired nationally via Amazon Prime, it seemed to grab the attention of the entire country in June — and, predictably, led to major chart gains for Kendrick Lamar. The rap superstar posted nearly 61 million combined US official on-demand streams in the next three days (June 20-22), a 31% gain over the three days prior to June (June 16-18).

Of course, the most consequential hit was for Kendrick Lamar's Drake-match knockout hit, the Mustard-produced Billboard Hot 100 Song of the Summer-topping “Not Like Us.” The song's performance was the most anticipated part of the entire night, and landing it as the last song of the show certainly didn't disappoint — especially since Lamar repeated his first verse twice, performed the entire song three times, and even dropped the instrumental to play as the closing credits rolled on the telecast. Apparently it still wasn't enough for his fans, as the song garnered nearly 21 million combined streams in the three days following the concert, a 62% increase from the previous three days. (It should be noted that streams garnered by a song during a regular Thursday-Saturday period are usually a bit higher than Monday-Wednesday streams, simply based on national streaming patterns.)

Could the hit be enough to send “Not Like Us,” currently the No. 6 song on the Hot 100, back to No. 1 for a second week? It will almost certainly climb back into the top five next week, and could even pass this week's champion, Sabrina Carpenter's “Please Please Please” — which is slipping a bit in streams so far this week. But No. 1 could still be out of reach given its radio disadvantage to Post Malone and Morgan Wallen's “I Had Some Help,” which reigned for five weeks before being displaced by Carpenter and remaining stable in sales and flows. However, Lamar has an extra weapon at his disposal: the highly anticipated official video for “Not Like Us,” which was spotted filming over the weekend. If he releases it before the tracking week ends, the added attention could be enough to get him through.

Black Hippy S–t: ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul also on streams

One of the most triumphant segments of The Pop Out came when Kendrick Lamar was joined on stage by his former Top Dawg Entertainment collaborators ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul for a Black Hippy crew reunion — their first performance together after Lamar's official retirement. tag after 2022 Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Jay Rock came out first to perform the Lamar collaborations “Money Trees” and “Kings Dead” and his own “Win,” then Ab-Soul appeared to assist Lamar on “6:16 in LA” and finally ScHoolboy Q completed the set for 'Collard Greens' and Black Hippy's remix of 'That Part'. The trio then proceeded to dance the stage through Lamar's rendition of his own solo classic, 'King Kunta'.

All three special guests were able to deliver their surprise performances to significant streaming gains in the days following the concert. Ab-Soul garnered 291,000 total official US on-demand streams in the three-day period following Juneteenth (June 20-22), up 44% from the three days prior to the show (June 16-18), according to Luminate . Jay Rock was up 45% over the same period, to just over a million streams. And ScHoolboy Q saw a 31% increase, with over 4.3 million streams amassed. While the other big guest during Lamar's set, West Coast godfather Dr. Dre, wasn't up as much, his 1999 classic “Still DRE” – which featured his surprise appearance – also up 19% over the same period. , to over 1.2 million streams.

A little help from his friends: Mustard, YG and others open to see their own profits

Pop Out was a star-studded event before Kendrick even took the stage. Before him on the Forum stage was fellow L.A. legend Mustard – producer behind “Not Like Us” as well as countless West Coast classics over the past 15 years – who opened by reminding the crowd of some of timeless beats he was responsible for (including Tyga's “Rack City,” 2 Chainz's “I'm Different,” and Big Sean's “I Don't F–k With You”) He then brought a slew of local special guests, some of whom (like Dom Kennedy and Tyler, The Creator) performed songs he wasn't involved in, and some of whom (notably Roddy Ricch and YG) played exclusively songs he directed.

Many of these artists saw big hits from their appearances at the televised event in the three days after the event (June 20-22) from the three days before (June 16-18), and many of the songs performed were particularly profitable. Tyler collected gains for the two songs he performed, “Wusyaname” (up 48% to 657,000) and “Earfquake” (up 28% to 1.5 million), as did Dom Kennedy for his pair of picks, “When I Come Around”. (up 142% to 102,000) and “My Type of Party” (up 127% to 69,000), according to Luminate. And YG, who rounded off his Mustard set with a selection of classics, saw his entire catalog rise by 35%, to nearly four million streams over the three-day period.

Mustard also saw a huge rise for the song that became the emotional centerpiece of his set: “Perfect Ten,” his collaboration with the late Nipsey Hussle, whose presence still hung over the entire West Coast celebration. The song rose 127% to 123,000 streams over the three-day period.