Kendrick Lamar Covers "California Love" at the iHeartRadio Awards

On the evening of May 1, 2014, Kendrick Lamar took the stage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and asked the crowd to raise their hands in memory of Tupac. At the first iHeartRadio Music Awards, he performed a version of “California Love”, the 1995 hit by Tupac and Dr. Dre. He sang the hook with a vocoder effect. On May 2, Rolling Stone highlighted the performance as the emotional high point of the night.

“It Started with That”

Before the performance, a clip was shown in which Lamar recalled watching the video shoot as an eight-year-old with his father. He said that had been formative: “It started with that.”

How Lamar had already described this scene in 2012 can be found in the report from July 19, 2012. The connection between the two artists is detailed on the page for Kendrick Lamar.