A few weeks ago Dr. Dre whispered “I see dead people” to introduce the first live performance of “Not Like Us” and send the Kia Forum crowd into a frenzy, a phone call in early June from an old friend got the message. The wheels are turning to bring Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out concert to Amazon Music.
Tim Hinshaw spent five years as Amazon Music's head of hip-hop and R&B before leaving the position in 2023 to start agency Free Lunch. Free Lunch teamed up with Lamar to find a live streaming partner for the Pop Out & Friends concert, and Hinshaw made it a family affair when he turned to his former employer.
Two of the people tasked with making the Juneteenth concert happen were Sierra Lever, who succeeded Hinshaw in Amazon's role and now leads the company's R&B and hip-hop brand Rotation, along with global head of content and artist marketing of the company Kirdis Postelle.
Sierra Lever
Lucas Passmore
Before eventually landing at Amazon, Postelle spent 17 years as general manager of Dr. Dre, Aftermath Entertainment. Amazon Music also served as the streaming home of K. Dot's The Big Steppers Tour stop in Paris in October 2022, so familiarity from all parties was already established and a reunion made sense.
“Having worked for Dre for so long [and] Kendrick has worked with me before — they know my bar of excellence is very high,” he brags confidently. “They knew we would offer just that [Kendrick] wanted.”
Kirdis Postelle
Courtesy of Amazon Music
The plan was put together in a matter of days and things moved quickly with all the teams involved working in symbiosis when it came to the global live stream.
“Moving Amazon, these are big wheels to turn — to get everyone involved,” Postelle asserts. “I feel like we had 10 days to turn it around. Get your marketing on point, Prime Video on point, to get it [Amazon’s livestreaming partner] Pull to the spot. For all these groups to rally behind this one thing.”
While she refuses to draw the curtain on the fires that had to be put out in the days leading up to the concert, Postelle allows that “there were some very late nights and some very early mornings trying to do this.”
June 19 quickly approached, and while most of corporate America had shut down for Juneteenth, it was showtime for Amazon Music and Kendrick Lamar at the Kia Forum. Postelle watched anxiously at home with millions of fans as her University of Oregon colleague stood outside the Inglewood arena, calling plays to oversee the operation from trucks.
K. Dot had the culture in the palm of his hand as he ran through Drake's live debut Shakedown soul-searching “Euphoria,” his solo verse on Future & Metro Boomin's “Like That” and, of course, his top ” Not Like Us “killshot” – bringing that last one back four more times.
The arrival of Dr. Dre delivered the biggest surprise of the night, with Dot welcoming his mentor to the stage for a mini-set of '90s classics 'Still DRE' and 'California Love', before Dre returned the favor and performed 'Not Like Us.”
Seeing the pair of Compton deities on stage together especially struck a chord with Postelle, an Aftermath Entertainment alum. “I got this pang of homesickness,” he admits. “I couldn't have asked for a better moment in hip-hop history for myself.”
Kendrick's victory lap reportedly broke Amazon Music's streaming record when it comes to live events. Without putting a specific number, the team confirmed that “millions and millions of people were watching,” as the live broadcast posted the most minutes watched of any Amazon Music production ever on Twitch and Prime Video.
And yes, Postelle and Lever – along with the Amazon Music team – saw some of the viral memes joke about how Amazon executives didn't quite understand what they wrote, with Pirus, Crips and various gang sets connected in the tent. along with other LA luminaries.
“We talked about it a little bit,” Postelle admits. “I saw some meme, 'Amazon executives didn't know what they were getting into,' and we laughed at that because the truth is, we are the executives.”
Lever adds: “People will be surprised by who the executives at Amazon Music are. The reason we can make quick decisions is because we have people who are experts in the genre.”
The phone keeps ringing as Amazon looks for its next cultural moment in live streaming. However, they're not worried about working with Kendrick on Pop Out potentially severing their relationship with Drake, who they previously collaborated with on the Larry Hoover Benefit concert alongside Ye in December 2021. “This was a culture thing for us. says Postelle. . “I do not think so [feuding element] even got into it. We don't take sides.”
While Amazon has released HD footage of Kendrick's epic debut performance of “Not Like Us,” the entire live stream is still lacking as an official feature for fans hoping to catch the historic show again. Somehow, Amazon didn't anticipate the frenzy surrounding the concert and is now working to release the entire live stream of the concert on its platform.
“We didn't expect, and neither did Kendrick, this kind of explosion for video-on-demand,” explains Postelle. “We hadn't planned it. Everyone is actively – between Kendrick's team and our team – figuring out what it's going to take to make this happen.”
With weeks to look back on the gig, Lever hailed the Pop Out experience as her “biggest cultural moment this year”, while Postelle claimed being a part of it as one of the “top five amazing things” she's achieved in her decorated career her.
“Not Like Us” also isn't going anywhere, as Drake's diss has returned to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and is a bona fide song of the summer contender. The Pop Out concert served as the perfect playground for Kendrick's championship parade while promoting west coast unity with his love letter to Black culture. With concert ticket prices skyrocketing across the industry, live streaming performances and bringing personal experiences to fans thousands of miles away provides a more important service than ever.
“When you think about underserved communities that don't necessarily have the ability to go to a show in person, this is an outlet for fans to continue to dive deeper into spending those moments with their favorite artists,” asserts Lever. And Postelle guarantees: “The power of live streaming will continue to grow.”
