Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for NARASLos Angeles just got hotter.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar took the stage tonight at the 2016 Grammy Awards and he just made the temperature rise in more ways than one. The leading nominee for music's biggest awards show gave the audience a powerful and provoking medley performance of some of his biggest hits off of his album To Pimp a Butterfly.
K.Dot's performance began with a praise-worthy introduction from Don Cheadle, who said, "His last album, Good kid, M.A.A.D city, was such a vivid introduction, it was a tough act to follow. So, instead, this man just took another giant step forward with To Pimp a Butterfly, an album that daringly incorporates jazz, funk, soul and pure poetry into a hip-hop masterpiece that helped earn him 11 nominations this year."
And with Kendrick, you know it's going to be intense.
Lamar approached the stage shackled up in a jail setting, and began with a verse from his debut single off the album, "The Blacker the Berry," before stripping himself of the cuffs around his hands, and dancing under blacklight in glow-in-the-dark outfits with his dancers.
Then, the rapper shoots over to the other side of the stage to perform in front of a large fire (now you know what we meant by literally bringing the heat), rapping "Alright" as a number of people performed an African tribal dance in the background, and as you might expect, he spit each and every word with so much intensity you could feel it.
To close out his performance, K.Dot was solo on the mike with the spotlight on him as he delivered a verse from "Hii Power," ultimately ending with an image of an outline of his city Compton in the background.