Kendrick Lamar's Powerful Grammy Performance Starts In Chains And Ends In Triumph
With wins for five of his 11 nominations already under his belt (Album of the Year is still pending), Kendrick Lamar hit the stage for a stirring medley Monday night.
After entering bogged down by chains, K. Dot rapped a verse from "The Blacker the Berry," surrounded by bandmates enclosed in jail cells. Before long, though, the rapper and his cohorts broke out of their shackles, and shifted to a new setting, stage and song.
Backed by a large bonfire and whirling dancers, he transitioned into "Alright," delivering the song -- which morphed into a protest anthem in 2015 -- with a mix of hope and passion. Then, in a welcomed surprise, he powered and sweat his way through a never-before-heard verse, with pulsating camera angles to match.
As the performance came to a close, Kendrick, exhausted, was backed by a large screen showing outline of Africa, with the word "Compton" stamped in the center.
As for that new verse, there could be more where that came from.
“I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album," he said recently. "But I think probably close to ten songs that I’m in love with that I’ll still play and still perform that didn’t make the cut.”