Kendrick Lamar, the Musical Phenomenon of the Moment

The American artist who shone at the Grammys last year is the new hip hop spearhead. The evening of the Grammy Awards progressed between sweetened performs by The Weekend, Adele, Taylor Swift, Sam Hunt, Carrie Underwood and the tribute to Lionel Richie. Those people who attended the show knew that something awesome was going to happen.

A statement of truths difficult to digest. The rapper Kendrick Lamar would get into the stage to sing.

Kendrick Lamar show

Basically the 28-year-old rap singer unleashed his anger. He appeared wearing a prisoner uniform, chained hands and feet to four other prisoners. All of them black skinned. The sound of the links, amplified, deafened the entire Staples Center in Los Angeles. The performance, today when racial conflicts jostle to the news daily in the United States, is a slap to the reality of the country.

Every second of the show, Lamar was more thunderous, electric and powerful. A bonfire in the middle of the floor painted a tribal. Then, the penumbra created on stage was interrupted with stroboscopic ‘flashes’. When silence finally arrived an image was projected in the background. The map of Africa with the word ‘Compton’ written in the center. The Californian city that is a node in the history of rap and hip hop.

Veto to Hip Hop?

Kendrick Lamar who was born in Compton, likes that his sound not only has rap influence, but also soul, jazz and R & B, tributes to his heroes, like the influential Tupac Shakur, whom he could see with Dr. Dre during the Filming of the music video ‘California Love’. Lamar was barely 8 years old, but what he saw from the barrier marked him deeply.

What happened during the Grammy Awards ceremony also revolves around disappointment: none of the awards that Lamar received was in the main categories (competed for song and album of the year), which won Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

For many, this result was seen as a direct scam to hip hop. A genre that although it has a lot of visibility in the Grammys. It has only obtained – as evidenced by a Washington Post report – 1.2 percent of the Awards in the big categories since being recognized as a genre by the Recording Academy in 1989. ‘Speakerboxxx’, from Outkast, won the 2004 album of the year.

The Taylor Swift’s album 1989- yes, ironically that’s the title – was considered the best album over ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ angry fans. Disc jockeys and music journalists. All of them believe that something similar to the “so white Oscar” happened.

Probably the confrontation between the two artists does not make much sense. Since Lamar collaborated on one of Swift’s most important songs in 2015: ‘Bad Blood’, a single with a video enhanced by the action movie aesthetics. Finally soon as she won the album of the year, after celebrating with her team, she went straight to hug the rapper. Who did not look frustrated.