After sweeping the rap categories at the 2016 Grammy Awards, Kendrick Lamar took the stage to perform To Pimp a Butterfly tracks "The Blacker the Berry" and "Alright" in handcuffs and shackles and licked by flames.
It was every bit the layered, poignant moment Kendrick had hoped to create. In a pre-show interview with Billboard, Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich described the performance's conception as such:
Read Next: Songs of the Summer: Final Four
"Kendrick came to us and said that we live in a time where these issues confront us every day and that it’s important that they be given a public forum, and he would like to use his x number of minutes to create a great performance that is consistent with his this year. It is overtly political and it is overtly provocative, and I think if nothing else it’s going to give people something to think about and talk about."
