Our Pop Out conversation with DJ Hed was so plentiful that some of the gems he dropped couldn’t make the original piece, where we talked to 13 acts who performed at his concert-opening set. He was followed by sets from DJ Mustard, who had noteworthy acts such as Tyler, The Creator and Ty Dolla $ign, and of course, Kendrick Lamar’s headlining performance. While those two other sets were full of established starpower, Hed’s was regarded as a showcase for up and coming LA acts — for many, it was their first performance in an arena.
He tells Rolling Stone that he ideated his 28-minute set (which received some curatory help from JasonMartin) with a theatrical mindset, vying to impress the crowd with newcomers then culminating each veritable “act” with an established artist. Overall, he says he’s “proud” of the event, and what up and comers have done since then.
According to him, his platform has also grown: I think [being at The Pop Out] helped me [because] people didn’t know who I was. People thought I came out of nowhere last year. And it’s forced people to go down the history and understand who I am and what I mean to this city and this community.It did put me in a cross hairs a bit, but that just come with the territory. But I think it definitely elevated me to a light that I couldn’t have done on my own. I’m super grateful to Dot and Dave [Free] and the other dudes that probably don’t want to be named: Mike Carson, Anthony and Tim Henshaw, all the dudes that like to play the background intentionally. I think what it did for me is it definitely showed me that people respect me in a different way because I asked things of people that I had not done myself yet, and people showed me a lot of respect and I appreciate that.“
From the creative mindset that shaped his 28-minute set to a couple of entertaining anecdotes, Hed offered a range of information that helped contextualize last year’s monumental LA rap showcase. Take a look at those reflections below.
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The Pop Out’s stage-filling finale was spur-of-the-moment
Kendrick Lamar and hordes of LA natives dancing to “Not Like Us” was one of 2024’s most resounding images; DJ Hed tells us he had no idea that the concert would conclude in that manner. “People always think we know everything…they don’t tell us everything. I didn’t know we were all going to go on stage until we were getting texts while Dot was performing like, ‘Dot wants everybody on stage.’ I’m like, ‘What you mean everybody? You mean everybody?’ They was like, ’Yeah, everybody get onstage then Dot is going to do the record a few times. When he put that call out, everybody need to pull up.’ Backstage, there was just a sea of humans: the homies, the community leaders, the artists, the entourage, everybody. We were just waiting on that cue, and when we got [it], we all went up there. You saw the basketball players and everybody. It was a moment.”
Hed gave a speech at the rehearsal to quell any street politics
AZ Chike told us that, “I feel like it was tension at rehearsal,” but says that ultimately everything was “all love” at the Pop Out. Perhaps that’s because at some point during the rehearsal, DJ Hed gathered everyone in the arena and gave them a pep talk. “‘Everybody showed up with they homies and it was…LA is very ‘communal.’ I gathered everybody around with their homies and I said, ‘Listen bro, I need full cooperation for five days. I understand you from here, you from there [but] I got 28 minutes to try to make history and I need everybody’s full cooperation. Y’all know I’m a non-affiliate, but I don’t give a fuck what hood you from.’”
PGLang was filming behind-the-scenes Pop Out footage
While telling us about his speech, Hed divulged that “PG Lang was filming everything. [but] I don’t know if we’ll ever see that footage.” Will clips from the rehearsal, or actual show, turn into a Pop Out documentary or some other kind of chronicle of this seismic era in Kendrick’s career? Time will tell.
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DJ Hed and Ray Vaughn got Top on the phone
Hed says that Ray Vaughn got to the venue after the initial rehearsal had ended, which gave them time to have a conversation. “I had a one-on-one with him and he wanted to do this one record and I told him ‘No,’ and he was like, ‘Call [TDE founder] Top.’ So we called Top, I told Top what I thought. I said, ‘I don’t think this is the play. I think he need to do the [“Problems”] record,’ and they was like, ‘How are we going to pull this off? The rest of the concert is turned up.’ I said, Ray Vaughn is going to stand out because I’m going to drop the beat and have him go acapella. When we did it in rehearsal one time, Ray was like, ‘Alright, I trust you, let’s do it.’ And so he ended up doing that [during the show].”
DJ Hed told us that he took a “Team Captain, but Role Player” mindset into the event
He told us: I’m 40, neither one of [Kendrick Lamar or DJ Mustard] are 40. Because I’m older than them, technically, I would be the big homie, as people would call it. But in this situation, I’m the little homie, the lowest tier between Dot and Mustard. And I accepted the responsibility of being a role player. I look at the greats like Derek Fisher or Matt Barnes; people don’t look at them the same [way] that they look at Kobe and LeBron, but they play a substantial role in winning championship games. And that’s how I looked at it. When I approached this, I said, I have a job to do and I need y’all’s cooperation to do this job successfully. You know what I mean? I was a team captain, but a role player at the same time. My lasting memory was all of those dudes, everybody involved — from the homies to the community leaders as I like to call them — gave me their full cooperation and I’m forever grateful to them.”
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DJ Hed laid out the setlist like a three-act film
“I’m a Marvel nerd, so I study Kevin Feige and the MCU and shit like that,” He says. “I took a page out of that book where I broke it up into acts. I watch Ryan Coogler talk a lot: You got three acts to a big blockbuster movie. So I wanted to create the first act and end with a cliffhanger, second act, end with a cliffhanger, third act, you a finale. That’s how I approached it. Salute to Ryan Coogler.” To achieve the cliffhangers, he mixed in records from newer artists with local hits that he knew would get bigger reactions.
The Pop Out’s unity inspired him to patch things up with JasonMartin (and they curated the set together)
“We had our own little private issue,” Hed reflects of he and JasonMartin, noting they agreed to be cordial but not work on any music together. Still, they “put their heads together” and ideated the order of Hed’s 28-minute set. “I had to put that aside to do this job, and nobody could ever tell that me and him weren’t cool. We’ve been friends for almost 20 years. [But] after the Pop Out, I felt like a hypocrite because I asked all of these dudes from different communities to put their differences aside to come together for this one day, and here I am on some shit with the homie. So after that I called him and I said, ‘Look bro, let’s put this behind us, let’s move on.’ He apologized and we came to a common ground.’
