Reliving Kendrick Lamar's 58th Annual Grammy Performance

Kendrick Lamar has elevated his status as artist to a new level. His 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly, positioned the Compton-bred emcee to outnumber any of his Hip-Hop counterparts this past year with 11 Grammy nominations, taking home the "Best Rap Album" and 4 other categories. His 58th Annual Grammy performance was thee talked of performance of the week. Happening in the midst of Black History Month and Beyonce's "appalling" Super Bowl 50 performance, the reactions of the people were full of empowerment and excitement after witnessing his performance.

"Cornrow Kenny" created a live visual that not only celebrated Black/African American and African people, but exposed the true injustices faced in this country. Pulling inspiration from a "chain gang" 1995 Florida group, African Surma and Mursi tribal designs, Nat Turner's rebellion to Maasai body paint, Kendrick Lamar's performance was full of well thought out symbolism. He and his team were able to use props and costumes to execute this complex performance.

Considering Hip-Hop hasn't always had its way at the Grammy Awards, Kendrick utilized the biggest stage in music to perform his rawest track"The Blacker The Berry" and one of his commercially successful yet controversial tracks "Alright" in front of a predominately white audience. Not allowing media's backlash from his 2015 BET Awards performance of "Alright" censor his artistic freedom, this year's Grammy's performance was a reminder of the past is still the present as well as disconnect of generations and cultures in this country. Song lyric "the emancipation of a real n**ga" came to life during the Grammys, as the world watched incarcerated black men [people] break the chains and blaze (literally) into freedom.

Thank you Kendrick Lamar for being one the few. Relive it all below:

(Photo: Grammy Social Media)