Hidden deep inside the 2016 Grammy awards, underneath the glitz and the glamour, the 'he wore this' 'she wore that', and the ends of cut-off acceptance speeches that we will never hear, was one of the greatest performances I have ever seen.

Photo Credit: gossiponthis.com

Kendrick Lamar shocked; he awed; and to be honest, he made me forget that I was watching an awards show, not a live stream of a killer concert at MSG.

After taking home Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance, Lamar took to the stage and shared a deeply political and poetic display of emotion.

So there I was, sitting at my desk, taking a break from pretending to do my homework, watching my favorite rapper absolutely destroy possibly the biggest performance of his young career.

It wasn’t until LL Cool J welcomed viewers back from the mystical land that K-Dot had just brought us to that I realized not only had I not blinked in roughly seven minutes, but my mouth had been wide open the entire time, as if my jaw quite literally was making it’s best attempt at dropping to the floor.

The most amazing part of his performance was not the lights or the dancers, or even his incredibly quick and clever vocals. It was the fact that as a white, 20-year-old male, I fully understood what he was singing about. Struggle, injustice, and oppression are all things I can’t identify with, but because of the way it was delivered to me, I felt as though, at the very least, I understood.

I got into the music game late, not even memorizing my hometown radio station until well into my middle school years. I missed Brittney, N-Sync and Backstreet Boys; basically every musical group that defined my generation. But that’s okay, because now I’m here, and some of the greatest music ever created is blaring out of my speakers on a daily basis.

Not to upset anyone, but being a white male from a rural upstate New York town whose favorite genre of music is Rap basically defies every stereotype you can come across when it comes to racial divides.

I love the rhythm; I love the rhyme. Most of all, I love the culture associated with the music.

Artists like Kendrick and J. Cole give me a glimpse into a life I will never know, and they do so in a way that allows me to identify with them not as a black man, but simply as a human being who understands and empathizes with the struggle of others.

To most, Kendrick’s Grammy performance was simply another award-winning dude singing his music on stage, but to me, and many other avid fans, it was art in motion.

He delivered to us the struggles and realities of black citizens everywhere, and he did it in a way that would have made Shakespeare proud.

Chains, fire, noise; he personified the atmosphere of all the riots and protests that have riddled news reports over the last few years.

While I can never possibly understand what it feels like to be a victim of prejudice, because of artists like Mr. Lamar I can empathize, support and listen.

Kendrick Lamar's Grammy performance - courtesy of Derek Ahlswede