JAYFORCE

Before he was selling out The Tabernacle (historic concert venue in ATL) or playing Music Midtown, one of the largest festivals in Atlanta, a young Kendrick Lamar rocked the stage at the Masquerade back on April 2, 2011.  Well before his albums “GKMC” and “To Pimp A Butterfly“,  young “KDot” made noise & grew his fanbase off of his mixtapes.  I was in attendance for this show along with my radio co-host Jayforce to see him perform.  We were guests for Kendrick’s show in part because our program The Beatz & Lyrics Show was the first show playing Kendrick’s music in Atlanta on a regular basis & we also conducted his first Atlanta radio interview. So naturally we looked forward to finally seeing him in person.  He did not disappoint it’s crazy to look back now because Ali, his famed engineer, was his DJ that night and his hype man was Schoolboy Q who at the time was only known by a few die hard TDE fans.  This particular show was Kendrick’s official breakout show in Atlanta when you knew he was going to be a star on a larger level.  Kendrick made a lot of fans that night and it doesn’t surprise me at all the success he has gained.  So check out this vintage footage I shot of him rocking the crowd before the albums, before the baby twist dreads, & before the worldwide acclaim.

More footage after the jump below…

-ArtByOdell Twitter/SoundCloud