Kendrick Lamar brought festive joy to his hometown during its annual Christmas toy drive.

On Saturday (Dec. 16), the “Rich Spirit” artist joined the Christmas In Compton Toy Giveaway, dressed casually in a white tee, jeans, and Adidas Sambas. His presence at the Enterprise Park advent was warmly received, as revealed by pictures shared online.

The event was also attended by other music industry figures, including Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Dairold Potts of 319 Music Group, and Jay Worthy. The last-mentioned expressed his gratitude on Instagram, acknowledging Lamar and pgLang for their participation and celebrating the toy drive’s success.

He wrote, “Who else hood you know got Jimmy Iovine pulling up to they park? Westside [Compton is] the most influential hood in America. [Shoutout] to my brothers and everybody else involved. This [is] deeper than rap, this [is] family.”

Lamar previously spoke about his connection to the city during an interview with The New York Times in 2022. “It’s nature versus nurture. I was nurtured in an environment where there’s, like, a lot of gang mentality,” he explained. “That certain language, certain lingo. How we walk. How we talk.”

The rapper continued, “I was just fortunate enough to have a group of guys around me that gave me that courage to feed myself with the arts, whether it was the street cats in my neighborhood, whether it was Dave [Free] who pushed me to be an artist, whether it was Top [Dawg] from the projects, the Nickerson Gardens. I always was allowed to be myself.”

Lamar’s last album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, came out in March 2022. It featured Blxst, Amanda Reifer, Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Tanna Leone, and more. The LP was lauded for tracks like “Die Hard,” “N95,” and “United In Grief,” to name a few.

Since then, Lamar collaborated with Beyoncé for a remix of “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM,” which came out in May. He partnered with Baby Keem for “The Hillbillies” that same month.