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Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up” video, directed by Calmatic, arrived on November 25, 2024, three days after the song appeared on GNX. Its vivid green room is less a plot setting than a memory-filled tribute to Los Angeles and West Coast culture. Production designer Carlos Laszlo described it as a generative museum where images are “called up as memory”—and where the set itself acts as an “unreliable narrator.”
A room that works like a memory museum
Rather than build a single, linear story, Calmatic and Laszlo filled a sparse green room with objects, signs, images, and performers that summon different moments in cultural history. Laszlo wrote that the room would have “no permanent collection”; instead, its contents would be “called up as memory.” He also said the unsettling shade of green was meant to make the set an unreliable narrator: memories and cultural symbols can be tangible without being perfectly reliable.
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That idea is a useful guide to the video. Some references are directly identified by the designer or by reporting; others are visual readings. A recognizable resemblance does not always establish a single intended meaning. Laszlo also described the concept, on a less abstract level, as a love letter to Los Angeles, where he, Lamar, and Calmatic were born and raised. Laszlo’s design presentation lays out the concept and many of the place names used in the set.
Los Angeles and Compton, built into the set
The room’s signs and location references root the visual collage in Southern California. Laszlo’s design presentation labels an I-105 highway sign and includes Snooty Fox, Crenshaw Mall Vision Theater / ART + PRACTICE, Dairy Mart, Tam’s Burgers, Maverick’s Flat, Watts Towers, and a Leimert Park sign. These details locate the video’s visual world in Los Angeles and Compton; the presentation does not establish a separate historical story for every prop.
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- Description Kendrick Lamar - GNX - Vinyl GNX is the sixth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. Titled after the Buick Regal model, and a follow-up to Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022). Tracklisting SIDE A: 1. wacced out murals 2. squabble up 3. luther 4. man at the garden 5. hey now 6. reincarnated SIDE B: 7. tv off 8. dodger blue 9. peekaboo 10. heart pt. 6 11. gnx 12. gloria...
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The collection of names matters as much as any one landmark: it makes the room feel like a compressed map of local memory, rather than a generic backdrop. That fits Laszlo’s description of the set as a museum whose contents surface through recollection.
Music, film, and television references
The video draws on works that have circulated through West Coast music and screen culture. The clearest reported examples span album art, music videos, film, and television:
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- Ice-T’s Power (1988): iHeart identifies Lamar’s blue outfit and a woman’s pose as an homage to the album cover.
- The Roots’ “The Next Movement” (1999): ABC identifies the Roots video as a reference. This is a visual connection, not evidence of a specific motive beyond the broader memory-driven concept.
- Menace II Society (1993): ABC and KQED include the film among the video’s references. iHeart specifically reads the child on a tricycle as recalling the film’s notorious drive-by scene; that particular connection is iHeart’s interpretation.
- Soul Train (1971–2006): ABC lists the television program as a reference, while KQED points to scramble-board imagery.
- Isaac Hayes, Nate Dogg, and Mac Dre: ABC and iHeart identify references or tributes to the artists. iHeart connects a large spinning CD to Nate Dogg’s G Funk Classics Vol. 1 & 2 and an image of Hayes to his Black Moses album.
Together, the references bring different eras and forms into the same frame. The video does not present them as a chronological history, and the collage should not be treated as proof that each image signals a new project or a hidden narrative.
Black cultural imagery in the green room
KQED identifies a David Hammons African American Flag—red, green, and black—hanging in the room; ABC also lists the flag as a reference. Its presence adds another layer to the set’s gathering of cultural symbols, alongside the music, film, and local place references.
At one point, Lamar holds up a sign reading “Jesus Saves Gangsters Too!” Pitchfork reports the sign in its account of the video. The One Club award entry connects the phrase to the Gangster Ministries movement; that connection is the entry’s interpretation, rather than a meaning established by the sign alone.
Bay Area turfing and scraper bikes
The video’s West Coast frame extends beyond Los Angeles. KQED reports that Oakland turf dancers Dmonte, Icecold 3000, Aktive, and Kiing Velo appear with recreated scraper-bike wheels, and that Lamar was composited into their scene after filming. The San Francisco Chronicle describes turfing as an Oakland-origin street dance built around rhythmic movement, waving, and gliding.
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Icecold 3000 told KQED that the group’s chemistry while shooting was “so, so electric.” The dancer also praised the clothing and design for capturing the essence of the 2000s hyphy movement. The scene therefore brings a distinct Bay Area dance and style tradition into a video otherwise strongly grounded in Los Angeles and Compton.
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The video’s release, director, and connection to GNX are straightforward: Pitchfork reports that Calmatic directed it, that it arrived November 25, 2024, and that Lamar had previewed the song in the “Not Like Us” video. The named cultural references are supported by reporting and Laszlo’s design presentation. Their meanings are not all equally definitive.
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The One Club entry discusses possible Drake-related signals but frames at least some of those readings as speculation. Treat such Easter-egg theories as interpretations, not confirmed explanations. Laszlo’s own account offers the more reliable organizing idea: a room where cultural memory is assembled, influential, and sometimes deliberately uncertain.
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