Kendrick Lamar paid tribute to the late Virgil Abloh during his performance at the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2023 Show in Paris, France on Thursday (June 23). Held outside of the Louvre on a yellow brick road installation, the fashion house showed off its newest Men’s collection for the upcoming seasons as attendees witnessed the luxury giant’s fresh designs for Paris Fashion Week.
LV’s live-streamed event was kicked off by Florida A&M University’s Marching 100, as 35 members of the famous marching band delivered a bombastic performance before setting the stage for Kendrick Lamar.
The Compton rapper—seated along the bright yellow runway next to supermodel Naomi Campbell and pgLang partner Dave Free—gave a lowkey performance of Mr. Morale & the Big Stepper’s favorites like “Savior,” “Count Me Out,” and “Rich Spirit.”
Accompanied by an orchestral arrangement, K. Dot breezed through the mentioned songs and ended his performance with a rendition of “N95.” Through each song, the rapper repeatedly mentioned Virgil’s name and closed his performance by affectionately chanting “Long Live Virgil.”
Louis Vuitton’s recent fashion show isn’t the first time that the rapper paid homage to the legacy of Virgil Abloh. During his Super Bowl LVI Halftime show, Kendrick Lamar wore an LV piece created by Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton’s Fall/Winter collection.
Recently, the rapper released a documentary entitled A Day in Ghana with Kendrick Lamar, showing him in Accra, Ghana, where he took some time to visit the skatepark Abloh created for the locals and posed for pictures in front of its entrance.
You can watch Kendrick Lamar’s tribute to Virgil Abloh below beginning at the 10:21 mark. Also, see Florida A&M’s Marching 100 performance below.