Clipse brought out Kendrick Lamar to perform “Chains & Whips” during a Los Angeles show.
In clips circulating of the performance at the Novo in Los Angeles for their Let God Sort Em Tour, K. Dot comes out on stage in a surprise showing to perform their new collaboration.
Afterward, Lamar addressed the crowd and spoke very highly of the Virginia hip-hop duo.
“It’s such a privilege to be in front of motherfucking legends,” said Lamar. “These are my motherfucking people.”
Check out clips of the performance below.
“Chains & Whips” appears on Clipse’s new LP Let God Sort Em Out. In July, the brothers Thornton told Complex about what it was like to grab K.Dot to appear on the track.
"It's nothing like being able to leave your song with a person and they totally, totally deliver," Pusha T said. "He's one of those people that you can send it and turn your back and know when it comes back, it's going to be everything that it's supposed to be."
Clipse weren’t the only people feeling Lamar’s contribution. Rap legend Rakim voiced his thoughts on Lamar’s verse after the rapper shouted him out with the line, "Let’s be clear, hip-hop died again/ Half of my profits may go to Rakim."
“I salute you KING!!!" wrote Rakim on Instagram. "Thnx for the illest shout I heard in a loooong time, and keep up the incredible work my brother, you ain't no joke !!!! Peace and blessings to you and yours."
In June, the Clipse revealed that a verse from Lamar is why they aren’t signed to Def Jam anymore. They said that the group’s manager, Steven Victor, had to pay seven figures to get out of the deal.
The situation stemmed from Lamar appearing on "Chains & Whips" and the record label wanting the rapper to censor his verse to avoid any issues with a litigious Drake.
“They wanted me to ask Kendrick to censor his verse, which of course I was never doing,” Push wrote. “And then they wanted me to take the record off. And so, after a month of not doing it, Steve Gawley, the lawyer over there, was like, ‘We'll just drop the Clipse.’ But that can't work because I'm still there [solo]. But [if] you let us all go….”
In an interview with Billboard, Victor confirmed the account and explained further about what happened.
"They were like, 'Pay us this money' — which was an exorbitant amount of money, a shit ton of money — 'and we’ll let you out the deal.' That’s what happened,” he said. “We paid them the money, an insane amount of money. It wasn’t, like, $200,000. It was a lot of money for an artist to come up with. They bought themselves out of the deal."