One of the highlights in the music industry this year was Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s highly-publicized beef. Over several weeks, the two renowned emcees traded jabs and also made scathing allegations against each other in their respective diss songs.
Their feud seemingly simmered after Lamar released his Not Like Us diss song on May 4. The track generated a huge buzz on social media and even debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Lamar went ahead to capitalize on the song’s success by releasing a music video he shot in his hometown of Compton. But one of the locations where he shot the video on June 22 cost business owners thousands of dollars, The Los Angeles Times reported.
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Corina Pleasant, who co-runs an eatery called Alma’s Place, told the news outlet that on the day the music video was shot, she realized customers were not coming to their establishment. Their eatery is situated in a strip mall, and she recalled the establishment’s parking lot was filled with cars and hundreds of people who had gathered to see Lamar as he shot the video at the location.
Pleasant said the reported inconvenience resulted in them losing thousands of dollars. She and other business owners said they were left with no resort but to prematurely close that day, and they are accusing city officials of failing to notify them about the video shoot. They are now requesting compensation from Lamar, production company pgLang, or the city. Permit certificates for locations for the video shoot were issued by Compton officials.
“It was really disheartening to have the electricity on and gas,” Pleasant said. “I’m just running everything and making no money. I literally was there for nothing, because the little money that I did make, I had to pay my staff with that.”
Pleasant told The Los Angeles Times that if she had been pre-informed about the video shoot, she could have either decided to not work that day or fix a pop-up tent with a special menu. She said the video shoot resulted in her losing between $1,800 to $2,200 on that day.
“One day does matter,” Pleasant said. “It does matter when you’re there, and you’re wasting your time. It does matter when your Edison bill is $1,000. It does matter when two weeks’ payroll for three people is nearly $3,000. It does matter when gas is $800. You’re there, all these things are running, and you have nothing to show for it.”
Another business owner, Adelfo Antonio Garcia, also shared a similar story, claiming that he lost around $2,000 on that day. He also said the situation has since resulted in customers thinking his eatery is not open for business on Saturdays.
“The people who suffer are the small businesses,” he said about the city’s failure to notify them about the video shoot.
Responding to the complaints in a statement, a spokesperson for the City of Compton said they would look into “opportunities for more efficient film permit communication to our community” for subsequent cases of such nature.
“Businesses in Compton, especially small businesses, are the backbone of our city,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “We want to continue to keep an open line of communication and do everything we can to support economic growth.”
Kathryn Arnold, who is a producer and entertainment consultant, told the news outlet that though production companies are not required to pay businesses affected by their operations, filmmakers on some occasions provide compensation as a goodwill gesture.
“Everybody does better when there’s clear communication,” Arnold said. “Nobody likes to be blindsided by something like this.”
Lamar and pgLang representatives did not comment on the case when they were contacted.
