Kendrick Lamar Invokes The Memory Of Trayvon Martin In Extraordinary Grammys Performance
"Set us back another 400 years, this is modern-day slavery."
The 2016 Grammys are looking to be pretty big for Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rapper is up for 11 nominations at this year’s Grammys, mainly for his third studio album To Pimp A Butterfly. So far he’s won five: Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Best Music Video, and Best Rap Album, with the Album of the Year winner yet to be announced.
But it’s his onstage performance which is drawing comparisons to Beyonce’s stirring Super Bowl half-time show last week. Continuing his run of unique, one-off performances of untitled songs on TV guest spots like The Tonight Show and The Colbert Report, Lamar premiered a new track that explores black politics, protest and defiance in the face of state-enabled racial violence.
Dressed in a prison uniform complete with handcuffs and chains on a set reminiscent of an American prison, Lamar’s new untitled track name-checks Trayvon Martin, the young black man whose shooting death on February 26, 2012 partly inspired the Black Lives Matter movement. “On February 26 I lost my life too … That was me he looked for help when he drowned in his blood … Set us back another 400 years, this is modern-day slavery,” Lamar sings.