Kendrick Lamar won best rap album for his 2015 masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly, at Monday night’s 58th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. That win came after Lamar already had picked up four other awards during the pre-televised portion of the night. Lamar even got a shout-out from the highest office in the land:
Shoutout to @KendrickLamar and all the artists at the #Grammys working to build a brighter future. #MyBrothersKeeper https://t.co/XM0KwV3jNB
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 16, 2016
But that was all prelude to Lamar’s powerful, politically charged onstage performance, starting with “The Blacker the Berry,” which he sang, at first, while wearing chains and standing against the backdrop of a prison. That was followed by “Alright,” a defacto anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was staged in front of an enormous bonfire.
Watch the full performance below: