We Gon' Be Alright

On February 15, 2016 Kendrick Lamar shockingly entered the Grammy’s stage shackled in chains, followed my a metaphorical chain gang of Black men, as he inched his way to his microphone stand where he would give a performance nothing short of chilling. His band, also Black men, played locked behind bars in fake prison cells on the stage. As more and more awareness is being brought to the failed prison industrial complex of America, also referred to as the New Jim Crow, it was clear that Lamar’s performance was taking a direct stand and bringing awareness to the issues this system is causing to the Black community. He opened with “The Blacker the Berry,” a song from his Best Album nominated and Best Rap Album winner, To Pimp a Butterfly. This song illustrates what it feels like to be Black in America; with lyrics like, “You hate me don’t you? / You hate my people, your plan is to terminate my culture,” Lamar left the crowd speechless.

While many were already surprised by Lamar’s political statement with the first song performance, he then unshackled himself and proceeded to perform an African style version of his multiple Grammy nominated song, “Alright.” As Kendrick ran away from the chains and prison cells to another stage, joined by the sounds of live African hand drummers and horns Lamar chants the words, “We gon be alright!” This song was created to reassure the Black community that despite the constant reminders of being subordinate to Whites and oppression that they will persevere.

While Lamar’s performance was nothing short of amazing there is one piece that disappointed me; Lamar changed the lyrics to “Alright” during the part which seems to be the most relevant considering today’s current racial battle. Originally the song rapped, “And we hate Popo/ wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, nigga/ I'm at the preacher's door/ My knees gettin' weak and my gun might blow but we gon' be alright.” This line illustrates the current feeling of frustration with law enforcement from many Black Americans today due to the the lack of value the police shows for Black lives.  However, during Lamar’s performance the line was changed to, “I'm at the preacher's door/Wanna kill us dead at the preacher's door/We said give em so mo', this one time/Do it for the show/But we gon' be alright." The line did not contain an excessive amount of profanity, so considering the fact that there is freedom of speech, many were confused as to why he changed the lyrics. While Kendrick was still able to convey a compelling message throughout his entire performance, I would have liked to see him go even further with that line.

I appreciated Lamar’s performance so much because he was so unapologetic. There is currently a small social movement occurring where several Black Americans are sporting shirts that read, “Unapologetically Black,” but Lamar’s performance was the epitome of what it looks like to be “unapologetically Black.” In a room full of White people who may be amongst the many Americans that try to pretend that we live in a color-blind world, Kendrick Lamar made people not be able to ignore some of the main issues currently facing the Black community. The 58th Grammy Award show host, LL Cool J, warned a week prior that Lamar would give a “very controversial” performance, but no one could have guessed just how revolutionary this would be.