Women Behind Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out Concert on Amazon Music

A couple of weeks before Dr. Dre whispered “I see dead people” to introduce the first-ever live performance of “Not Like Us” and send the Kia Forum crowd into a frenzy, an early June call from an old friend set the wheels in motion to bring Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert to Amazon Music.

Tim Hinshaw, who spent five years as Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B, left in 2023 to launch Free Lunch, an agency that partnered with Lamar to seek out a streaming partner for the Pop Out & Friends concert. Hinshaw turned to his former employer, making it a family affair.

Sierra Lever, who succeeded Hinshaw at Amazon and now leads the company’s R&B and hip-hop brand Rotation, and Kirdis Postelle, Amazon’s global head of content and artist marketing, were among those who helped bring the Juneteenth concert to life.

Postelle, who spent 17 years as general manager of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, was already familiar with Kendrick from past collaborations. This familiarity made the reunion seamless.

“Having worked for Dre for so long and Kendrick in the past, they know my bar for excellence is really high,” Postelle highlights. “They knew we were gonna deliver exactly what Kendrick wanted.”

The plan materialized swiftly, with all teams working harmoniously on the global livestream. “Moving Amazon, these are big wheels to make turn – to get everybody on board,” Postelle explains. “I feel like we had 10 days to turn this around. Get the marketing, Prime Video, and Twitch all in sync.”

Though there were challenges in the days leading up to the concert, Postelle admits there were some “really late nights and some really early mornings trying to get this done.”

June 19 arrived, and while most of corporate America had Juneteenth off, it was showtime for Amazon Music and Kendrick Lamar at the Kia Forum. Postelle watched from home with millions of fans as her colleague managed operations from the trucks outside the arena.

Kendrick captivated the crowd with live debuts of tracks like “Euphoria,” and “Like That,” and multiple renditions of the climactic “Not Like Us.” The biggest surprise was Dr. Dre’s arrival, performing ‘90s hits “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love” before introducing “Not Like Us.”

Seeing Dre and Kendrick on stage together resonated deeply with Postelle, an Aftermath alum. “I got that pang of nostalgia,” she says. “I couldn’t have asked for a better hip-hop history moment for myself.”

Kendrick’s performance broke Amazon Music’s streaming record for live events, with “millions and millions of people watching,” according to the team. The broadcast accumulated the most minutes watched of any Amazon Music production on Twitch and Prime Video.

Postelle and Lever also noticed some viral memes joking about Amazon executives being unaware of the concert’s intensity. “We laughed about it because the truth is we’re the executives,” Postelle reveals.

Lever adds that people would be surprised by who some of the executives are at Amazon Music. “The reason we’re able to make quick decisions is because we have people who are experts in the genre.”

Despite Amazon’s collaboration with Drake for the Larry Hoover Benefit concert in 2021, Postelle doesn’t believe working with Kendrick on Pop Out will sever ties with Drake. “This was about culture for us,” Postelle states. “We don’t take sides.”

While Amazon released HD footage of Kendrick’s debut of “Not Like Us,” the entire livestream is still unavailable in an official capacity. The unexpected demand has both teams working on releasing it in full.

“We didn’t anticipate, and neither did Kendrick, this outpouring for the video on demand,” Postelle explains. “Now, everyone is figuring out how to get it up.”

Reflecting on the concert, Lever called the Pop Out experience the “biggest cultural moment this year,” while Postelle praised it as one of the “top five amazing things” she’s done in her career.

“Not Like Us” continues to thrive, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a song of the summer contender. The Pop Out concert was a celebration of Kendrick’s success and a love letter to Black culture, promoting West Coast unity.

Livestreams are becoming more essential as concert ticket prices soar. Lever emphasizes the importance of these virtual concerts for underserved communities that can’t attend in person. “This is an outlet for fans to dive deeper into having these moments with their favorite artists.” Postelle concludes, “The strength of livestreaming is going to continue to grow.”

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