Anyone who has spoken to me at all in the last year, knows that I did my thesis on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly as a Narrative for The Black Lives Matter Movement. I had no idea then that he would one day go to The Grammy's and tear the place apart.

First, before I go into why piece by piece, this performance was epic as hell. I need you to understand the Grammy's is the musicians equivalent to the Oscars. It is an institution. I initially had a problem with the black representation being in rap, hip hop and r&b categories rather than the all around great music categories but right now, that is neither here nor there because they told Kendrick Lamar he could perform after getting eleven nominations and he basically said, "Oh, really? Y'all gone learn today." And learn, they did. Now they cut him off during his first acceptance speech and he walked off with a smile. I should have known then that he would channel every negro spiritual known to man on that stage but who would have guessed?

Don Cheadle introduced this illustrious performance as a hip-hop masterpiece, and that was only the beginning. Kendrick opened with a spotlight in a prison scene, leading a chain gang, reminiscent simultaneously of Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in Life and paying homage to Michael Jackson in They Don't Really Care About Us. He rattles his chains to reach around the mic looking burdened and weak, just before he opens with the lines of Blacker The Berry, "I'm the biggest hypocrite of 2015," against an imprisoned saxophone player carrying a song in the background.

But that is just the first ten seconds. He stood center stage at The Grammy's, and said "You hate my people don't ya? Your plan is to terminate my culture. You know you're evil." Son, what? On top of that, he has his back up dancers behind him holding up their chains in silence and protest. First off, he's blatantly calling out the prison industrial complex as today's slavery system and the racism that seems commonplace to today's America, while looking directly into the screen at The Grammy's. I keep saying it's The Grammy's because this is a very important fact to remember. We are in a crowd that is mostly shocked and white, but it gets even better.

As he says "Trap our bodies but can't lock our mind," he and the other black men on stage shed their chains. Now we can get into the lack of representation of black women discussion but let's be real he is a black man discussing black issues, if he tried to be an expert on black women's issues black feminists would find something wrong. He speaks from his own perspective which is revolutionary on its own, Bey got our backs on that one.

But then he starts jamming to the Blacker the Berry hook, "Them treat we like a slave because we're black...every race starts from the black just remember that."

Then, exiting the prison unchained, to the tune of African drums he stumbles past African dancers in costume and in front of a burning fire as Alright, an uplifting negro spiritual if there ever was one, begins. Now, if you have been bumping this song without looking at the lyrics, you have failed Kendrick, do that now.

Don't just sing along. listen. Prisoners and African dancers come together in front of the fire to dance in celebration of we gon' be alright. There was a point when the mic and sound cut out which was the "Diggin' in my pocket, ain't a profit big enough to feed you line," but what I noticed was he didn't perform the line "And we hate Popo, wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, nigga."Mhmm, things to think about. Don't want rallies outside protesting Kendrick and The Grammy's for speaking on that little tidbit. But I digress as I pour my Lipton.

But then, now in the spotlight again where a black eye is visible, he slips into this entirely new song with notable lyrics such as, "On February 26th, I lost my life too," that being the date of the death of Trayvon Martin and what most say marked what would later become the Black Lives Matter Movement.

"Say that it sound distorted, but I know what it was, that was me yelling for help when he drowned in his blood." In this, he referenced Trayvon's 911 call that would be his last words, distorted at times and unclear. He then goes on to reference the movement directly with, "Add to a trail of hatred, 2012 was taken for the world to see, set us back another four hundred years, this is modern day slavery." Son, what?

This is still the Grammy's, right? No. This is The Kendrick Show. Thank you. You may go home.

But then, when his passionate rhymes seem to overflow, it gets better and ends with a still of Kendrick's shadow against the shape of the African continent with Compton written across it. Saying to me something like we are the same, we are all us, and we must come together from every walk of life to overcome. Click here for the link to watch the video if you missed it last night or just need to witness greatness one more time.