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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy performance moved from the stark prison tableau of “The Blacker The Berry” into the defiant “Alright,” then ended with a previously unheard verse beneath an illuminated image of Africa marked “Compton.” The sequence made the staging part of the story—and arrived in a year when Lamar won five Grammys.
Watch Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy performance
The Recording Academy’s performance report describes Lamar marching onstage in a prison jumpsuit, shackled to a group of men dressed as inmates. His band played inside a makeshift prison cell as he performed “The Blacker The Berry.”
The set then shifted to “Alright,” before Lamar closed with a lyrical passage the audience had not heard before. Behind him, an illuminated image of Africa displayed the word “Compton.” The visual move connected the place Lamar came from with a broader image of African heritage, while the songs and staging gave the short performance a clear dramatic progression.
How the songs and staging shaped the set
“The Blacker The Berry” in a prison tableau
The opening image was deliberately stark: shackles, inmate clothing and a band enclosed in a prison-like space. The Recording Academy presents the performance as a declaration of Black pride and a celebration of Compton, Africa and the influences behind To Pimp a Butterfly. That is the Academy’s interpretation of the set, rather than a definitive statement of Lamar’s personal intent.
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“Alright” and the public debate of 2016
For “Alright,” the staging changed. TIME’s contemporaneous account described dancers, chains, a painted mark around Lamar’s eye and a giant pyre. TIME placed those images amid public discussion of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. The Recording Academy likewise noted that “Alright” was being used as an anthem at Black Lives Matter protests, while framing the performance more broadly around Black pride and Compton.
The Africa-and-Compton image and the final verse
The closing passage was not simply an improvised ending: a later Recording Academy retrospective identified it as material from an unreleased song recorded during the To Pimp a Butterfly sessions. It was later released as “Untitled 5” on the 2016 album untitled unmastered. The illuminated Africa marked “Compton” gave that previously unheard material a final visual punctuation.
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What the performance meant in its Grammy-night context
The ceremony was the 58th Grammy Awards, held February 15, 2016. Lamar won five awards, spanning his album, songs and collaborations. The Academy’s awards record and retrospective list the results as follows:
| Award | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Rap Album | To Pimp a Butterfly |
| Best Rap Performance | “Alright” |
| Best Rap Song | “Alright” |
| Best Rap/Sung Collaboration | “These Walls,” with Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat |
| Best Music Video | “Bad Blood,” with Taylor Swift |
One distinction matters: To Pimp a Butterfly won Best Rap Album, but it did not win Album of the Year; that award went to Taylor Swift’s 1989, according to the Recording Academy’s retrospective. The five wins frame the performance as a major Grammy-night moment without making it the same thing as an Album of the Year victory.
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