H-Town Host's Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN' Pop-Up Shop
July 15, 2017
Article & Photography By: Jessica Perez
After a much anticipated 4 months, ensuing the drop of the 1st delicious appetizer The Heart Part 4 that was released in late March, K.Dot finally kicked off the DAMN tour. And just as expected, fans lost their shit. Including myself.
It’s without reason that after recent presentation of his 4th studio album, which of recently has been certified double-platinum that this tour would undoubtedly be LIT AS FUCK. During the first part of the tour, D.R.A.M and Mo-City native, Travis Scott hit the road accompanying Kendrick up until early August where YG will join in on the tour.
All in collaboration with the tour festivities, Kendrick brought The DAMN Pop-Up Shop to 15 select cities nationwide, allowing the public to get first dibs on city-exclusive Kenny merch. Houston’s pop-up shop was hosted by locally owned, urban apparel store; The Tipping Point which is located in downtown H-Town.
Kunta enthusiasts began lining up in the early AM hours forming a line that by noon wrapped all the way around the building, extending another block away from the shop. The love was real, the heat was real and the hopes were high. It was only one day before that Kendrick surprised fans by secretly showing up at Dallas’s DAMN pop-up shop location, Black Market USA. I’d say that this definitely influenced the crowd of people who flocked in hopes to meet King Kendrick with memorabilia and sharpies in hand.
The front windows of the shop were mysteriously covered with a DAMN backdrop, blocking anyone outside from seeing in as the album bumped on a bouncy, echo-y loop from the inside of the store. This DID NOT, I repeat. DID NOT help my anxiousness! Upon entry of the store, being granted access by security and HPD limited by a few people at a time, only heightened the exciting energy that radiated from one of the most culturally diverse groups of people I have ever seen.
The Tipping Point couldn’t have been a better place to host K.Dot’s pop-up. The minimal, modern, clean space was brightly lit with attractive white neon fixtures hanging from the ceiling and ALL-Kendrick-Everything was up for grabs. The DAMN Limited Edition merch was neatly displayed in shadow boxes hanging as wall art, alongside other select TDE gear which included hats, hoodies, shirts, and DAMN vinyl’s & CD’s.
The pop-up-shop-exclusive items on the menu included the City-Specific DAMN tees. The Houston version hung tastefully [on display only] with bold, wavy-printed lettering on the front side and catered to Rockets themed colors, obviously…because H-TINEEEE. HOL’ IT DINEEEE.
And yes, it was for display only. The displayed items were solely for views. If you wanted to throw down on some gear, you’d simply place your order with an employee carefully not to go over 2 items per person and then wait patiently in the blue neon-lit entry way as they called out your name once orders were ready.
Needless to say, as our great bi-polar city of Houston would have it, the blistering sun soon disappeared and the rain came pouring down…in the scariest way possible. Think of the intro to Untitled Unmastered. Yea, that happened.
Fans including myself, anxiously stuck around after making our quick purchases to see if MAYBE he’d surprise us like Dallas. Considering that he was at the beginning of an explosive, nationwide tour…I ain’t mad that he didn’t come through! The rain continued and everyone cleared out, most of who would make their way down the road and head to the concert at The Houston Toyota Center.
The DAMN pop-up shop was definitely a great pre-concert festivity that gave true Kendrick fans a dope spot to kick it and converse before the show. The experience itself kept a constant wave of high energy that charged up concert goers for the incredible DAMN Tour that would soon unfold.
