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Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Squabble Up’ Music Video Features Bay Area Turf Dancers

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man sits on chair while people dance and bike around him
Icecold 3000, Aktive, All Gold Niinoo and Dmonte ride scraper bikes and go dumb in Kendrick Lamar's 'squabble up' video.  (Kendrick Lamar/YouTube)

After uniting the West Coast with “Not Like Us” earlier this year, Kendrick Lamar has arrived with another anthem, “squabble up.” The standout track from K.Dot’s surprise new album, GNX, which hit streaming last Friday, is a funky flip of Debbie Deb’s freestyle classic, “When I Hear Music.” Its music video arrived Monday morning, and Lamar packed it with hip-hop culture (and history) references that lean heavily into his hometown of Compton, and also include an homage to the Bay Area.

In the video, Lamar posts up in an empty Victorian living room, rapping nonchalantly in a Dodgers-blue hoodie while scenes unfold around him, like Henry Taylor paintings brought to life. David Hammond’s red, green and black African American Flag hangs on the wall. Dancers c-walk; girls pose in front of a mall-style airbrushed backdrop; and a lowrider hits the hydraulics. Lamar also slips in references to Black pop culture staples, including Isaac Hayes, Soul Train and the 1993 film Menace II Society, which features the late Oakland rapper Saafir.

About 50 seconds in, we see Lamar crack open a book called How to Be More Like Kendrick for Dummies as Bay Area turf dancers go stupid and ride scraper bikes around him. Local fans might recognize Dmonte, Icecold 3000 and Aktive of Turf Feinz and All Gold Niinoo of Best Alive Dance Crew.

“Thank you for phuckin wit east Oakland, west Oakland and Richmond,” Icecold wrote on Instagram.

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This nod to an iconic Bay Area dance style is not the first time Lamar has referenced the region in his art. He shot his music video for “Alright,” from his pivotal album To Pimp a Butterfly, on Treasure Island in 2015. More recently, he tapped Vallejo legend E-40 to host his Juneteenth stadium show in L.A. as he made his victory lap after his beef with Drake. “squabble up” is just his latest show of appreciation for the Bay’s contributions to West Coast hip-hop culture.

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