All great performances succeed in relaying a larger meaning to the viewer.   Visual style is typically the difference between a unique performance and an average one.  In order to succeed in producing this extensive meaning, visual motifs are a necessity.  Using personal interpretation, one is able to successfully dig deeper into a visual text’s context.  Kendrick Lamar is an African American rapper who is well known for his points on contemporary political issues.  Through his music, videos, and performances, he is always able to provide his standpoint.  In his 2016 Grammy performance, he uses numerous powerful visual motifs in order to argue a point.  The main visual motif that constructed his entire performance was that of the African American people. His entire performance was based on the African American community and their struggles due to outside influences. The stage’s scene consistently changes, in order to portray how African Americans have developed and fought through past influences. Kendrick shows how in the past, when the African American people have been oppressed before, they have always found a way to rise up. Using the surrounding area, color schemes, lyrics, and filmic methods, Kendrick’s ideal of hypocrisy in the African American community, due to outside influences in his Grammy performance becomes evident. 

Kendrick Lamar’s first scene of his performance create the tone for the remaining performance and begins his argument. At the beginning of his performance, he walks out onto the stage with his backup dancers in handcuffs. They are clearly in a jail, as the surrounding area is filled with jail cells.  In one of the cells a saxophone is playing slow and sad music, creating a very somber environment.  Everybody on the stage was African American, which was the key point of his argument. All of the African American men on stage had control over their own destiny, because there weren’t any guards present in order to monitor the men and their actions.  The men are chained up together, symbolizing the fact that they stand as one, and that they are all in this situation together. Kendrick begins his performance by stating, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015.” This was a line from his song, “Blacker the Berry”. Whilst rapping, Kendrick has a solemn look on his face, like something is bothering him.  He is also twitching each time the beat hits, creating emphasis on certain parts of the song. Kendrick Lamar’s body language, and the surrounding area creates a very dark and negative connotation to his performance.

 As the performance begins to unravel, we get an idea of what this negative connotation is based on. He goes on to call out people that seemingly have oppressed his people, he states, “You never liked us anyway.” Then states, in a very aggressive manner, “You hate me don’t you? You hate my people; your plan is to terminate my culture. You’re fuckin’ evil, I want you to recognize that I’m a proud monkey.” He seems to be referencing the white community, who have consistently oppressed black people and their rights throughout history, and who continue to have issues with racism in modern times.  Kendrick only raps the first verse of “The Blacker the Berry”, which is the part in which Kendrick addresses the white community.  He does this in order to get his argument across. That his people are clearly being put down and yet he still stands proud of his heritage. After he finishes the verse, the men on stage take their handcuffs off and dance to the music. Their bodies turn into skeletons in the dark. This was used to symbolize equality. It showed that we are all the same on the inside, skin color is only an appearance, and yet white America still shows so much clear racism towards African Americans. He continually states, “You can lock our bodies, but not trap our minds.” Meaning that white society can continually persecute African Americans, but they will never stop fighting for their people. Prior to leaving this scene, Kendrick states, “You sabotaged my community making a killing, you made me a killer….” In the context of confronting the white community we now get an idea of what he means by, “I’m the biggest hypocrite of 2015.” He is stating that the modern white community has been violently fighting against the African American people and has created a self-hating community. At the end of the song he performed, “Blacker the Berry”, Kendrick states, “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me, hypocrite!” Which further proves this argument.  Kendrick has killed other African Americans but then solely blames the police for their actions towards his people. Thus making him a hypocrite. Kendrick Lamar’s politically charged Grammy performance provides an argument that confronts White America for its continuous blatant racism that has developed him into a very similar type of person.

The next scene transitions into the past. It previews numerous men, all black, dancing around a raging fire.  Most are in tribal attire, however, Kendrick and his backup dancers are still in their jail outfits.  The lyrics Kendrick is singing are the most important part of this scene.  He begins by repeatedly saying, “We gon’ be alright.” This song is called, “Alright” which was the main song for the Black Lives Matter movement. Compared to the previous scene, this one seems very joyous. This part of the performance seems to symbolize how the black culture has evolved and will continue to. He sings, “Wouldn’t you know we been hurt and down before…” this was immediately followed with him yelling, “We gon’ be alright.”  He means that his people have been oppressed before and they will rise just as they have previously.  This part of the performance is placed right after the idea of hypocrisy that he instated in order to show that nobody can put his people down.  He is also stating how, regardless of how his people are going to be treated, they will always hold true to their culture, and come out okay.  Kendrick Lamar brings his performance back to the roots of African culture, to prove that African American people will continue to progress, despite negative influences.

The ending scene is the most powerful in the performance. Kendrick is now on stage alone; the stage is very dark with one spotlight on him. It seems that Kendrick is now confronting the audience. He states, “For your community, do you know what this does? Add to a trail of hatred… Set us back another 400 years.”  This was in reference to the Trayvon Martin shooting. Which is what seems to be his biggest influence behind this performance. The main visual motif of Kendrick’s performance was the African American people themselves. The only performers were black which made for a very critical statement, as he relayed this message to a mainly white audience. Even though he has admitted he is a hypocrite for participating in killing blacks, just as whites have, he blames the white community for making him, and others in the black community that way. 

 