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CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY FORUM VOL. 7 

Music Review: Analysis of Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy 
Performance 

Dorcia White 
Department of Sociology 

California State University, Los Angeles 
   
 

 
Scan to watch Kendrick Lamar's 2016 Grammy Performance 

 
Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy performance medley of his 
songs “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” – akin to a protest 
march and laden with powerful and moving imagery – is coming 
from a place of exhaustion. It speaks volumes regarding the plight 
of Black Americans and is a stark representation of the entrenched 
violence perpetrated against them by the United States 
government, allowing regular White folks to rape, murder, and 
pillage Black bodies without repercussions (Anderson 2016).  

Using three key images from Lamar’s performance in the 
order in which they are presented – incarceration, bonfire, and 
Compton/Africa – this analysis will provide historical context and 
background regarding the racialized policies to which each image 
refers. These are stories that are not often told, certainly not in a 
historically accurate way. Lamar’s telling of these stories may be 
the first time certain audiences have seen these histories 
represented in a way that rings true for their own lived 
experience. The facts informing these images are often not 
represented accurately. I aim to reveal their deeper meaning: how 
the situation got that way and how the system continues to be 
misrepresented.  



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Image 1 Key Imagery from Kendrick Lamar's 2016 Grammy Performance 

INCARCERATION  
The powerful imagery of Kendrick Lamar on a chain gang, and 
his band in jail cells, will be explored first. Lamar uses the racial 
project of the prison system to expose the impact of incarceration 



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as it has led to inequalities, discrimination, and segregation. The 
imagery of Lamar surrounded by jail cells and a chain gang is 
powerful because it points to systemic racism that perpetuates the 
disproportionate number of Black people stuck in the industrial 
prison system (Smith 2012). Lamar is bringing to light that this is 
still happening 400 years later and that racial inequalities are what 
perpetuates this historical system. This imagery showcases how 
Black men, of all statuses, experience the brutality of the prison 
system, so when Lamar is breaking the chains, which is a 
significant and integral part of this performance.  

Lamar’s performance may be a call to action for Black 
Americans to stay ‘woke’ and stay vigilant (Zavattaro and 
Bearfield 2022). The rigid, intractable, and seemingly immovable 
social structure that rejects change must also be recognized for 
how it perpetuates white supremacy and resists movements like 
Black Lives Matter (Smedley and Smedley 2012). To create 
change there must be a call to action to write anti-racist policies 
and laws that protect the most vulnerable, and resist the 
misappropriation of Black culture, such as weaponizing the word 
woke (Zavattaro et al. 2022). Every individual has the opportunity 
to do something, such as lead, activate, march, protest and unite. 
This could look like organizing in your community to end gang 
violence and police violence (Zavattaro et al. 2022). It could look 
like starting a neighborhood clean-up program for teens. These 
strategies can change the trajectory of Black lives, neighborhoods, 
and outcomes shaping Black futures (Sojoyner 2013; Williams 
and Lewis 2024). Lamar understands the industrial prison system 
as the new slavery for Black people that perpetuates poverty while 
maintaining the status quo for the wealthy and white through 
“cheap labor” of “Black bodies” (Hammad 2019). 
 
BONFIRE 
Second, the bonfire image relates to 400 years of racial terror, 
slavery, and oppression of Black people alongside Indigenous 
tribes and other people of color - A.K.A. BIPOC (Dunbar-Ortiz 
2014). Lamar is being didactic through his message that systemic 
and institutionalized racism perpetuates the plight of Black 
Americans. The fire, on the one hand, represents KKK terrorism 
against Black people: the cross burning, the lynchings, and the 



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ethnic cleansing of entire towns of BIPOC (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014). 
Lamar's performance tells us that racism is not dead simply 
because the majority of White people say they are not racist 
(Bonilla-Silva 2003). Additionally, the imagery of the fire is 
saying there will be more Civil unrest because poverty leads to 
violence. The fire represents the systems in place throughout 
American history, which have manifested through events like the 
Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre of 1921 and the Philadelphia bombing 
of 1985. White supremacy evolved to perpetuate these draconian 
systems into a new form of Jim Crow, which is color-blind racism 
(Bonilla-Silva 2003). Furthermore, the racism that plagues Black 
Americans spills over in the form of racial remittances (Zamora 
2022), causing immigrants to have racial baggage full of 
stereotypes about Black people. Prejudice happens long before 
they have encountered a Black American. This system speaks 
volumes to the impact that colonialism has on people outside the 
U.S. (Zamora 2022). It is a strong possibility that racial baggage 
is the fuel that helped more than 60% of Hispanics make the 
decision to choose a racist, divisive, xenophobic, felon over a 
more than capable, highly educated, strong, effective Black 
woman for President. With that in mind, Black Americans must 
join Lamar’s vigilant fight against the racial divisiveness that 
plagues this nation (Williams and Lewis 2024). 
 
AFRICA/COMPTON 
The final of the three analyzed images, Compton stamped in the 
middle of Africa, sheds light on the categorizing of Black people. 
Segregation, discrimination, and inequality happen in Compton 
and wherever Black people call home. Such categorizing leads to 
systemic racism and racial inequality for Black Americans. 
Compton stamped onto Africa signifies the unity necessary to 
dismantle systems like structural racism and police brutality. The 
image of Africa/Compton denounces the myth of scientifically 
proven biological differences that Black people are inferior to 
white (Smedley and Smedley 2012) by reminding the audience 
that we all come from the DNA of the same African woman. 
Finally, the West African dancers joined by the prisoners represent 
unity, ambition, and advancement of Black people that fueled the 
Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement (Anderson 



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2016). Through this image of Compton in Africa, Lamar is 
imploring Black people to never forget that Africa is where they 
came from (hooks 2015). 

  
LYRICAL CONTENT  
At another point during the performance, Lamar identifies the 
United States government’s discrimination, couched within the 
guise of biological determinism, to which Black people were 
subjected (Smedley et al. 2012). Specifically, the lyrics refer to the 
size of his nose and dark complexion. Lamar confronts Black 
Americans’ racialization, as it testifies to color-blind racism’s 
maintenance of the status quo. Indeed, white rage has led to 400 
years of physical labor and mental anguish of the Black race 
(Anderson 2016). Lamar’s performance reminds us of the 
countless lives and generations destroyed by Anglo-settler 
colonialism (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014). 
 
CONCLUSION 
Stereotypes created by White America have misrepresented Black 
people and such racialization has led to institutionalized and 
systemic racism, as held up by the racist laws and policies of the 
U.S. government. Lamar pushed the envelope with his 2016 
Grammy performance, sending a didactic message by revealing 
the ethnocentrism that White America has used to beat down the 
Black race (Smedley and Smedley 2005). In doing so, Lamar 
exposes Black Americans’ of-repressed sentiment: that the social 
structures supporting American terrorism have perpetuated a 
system of segregation and inequality. Racism has not ended 
because Jim Crow laws are no longer in force. Damage, 
previously caused by overt racism and racial terror, is perpetuated 
by covert racism and color-blind racism (Bonilla-Silva 2003). The 
imagery was powerful and moving, and it confronted the 
categorization of Black people by White Americans, as it has led 
to discrimination, inequalities, and segregation of Black 
Americans (Williams and Lewis 2024).  

Lamar never ceases to amaze his audience by faithfully 
delivering the no holds barred punches. His message warns the 
world that Black people are “gon’ be alright,” (Lamar 2015) 
which is completely in line with Lamar’s character and morals. 



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Since 2016, Lamar has soared to new heights winning the 2018 
Pulitzer Prize for Music (Pulitzer 2018). Once again reigning 
victorious with his 2024 hit “Not Like Us” inspired by a 
controversial battle with Drake (Trust 2024), Lamar’s “Not Like 
Us” music video captures his style of speaking truth to power and 
remembering where you come from (hooks 2015).  

Lamar’s performance reveals the color-blind racism that 
has taken the place of Jim Crow laws, thereby perpetuating the 
misrepresentation and stereotyping of Black people in the United 
States. Lamar’s performance illustrates the hatred for Black 
people and demonstrates the historical racist policies that have led 
to the marginalization of Black people (Anderson 2016; Williams 
and Lewis 2024). Recall that Black people did not come to the 
Americas by choice but by force! 

  
REFERENCES 

Anderson, Carol. 2016. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial 
Divide. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2003. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism 
and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. 
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. 2014. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United 
States. Boston: Beacon Press. 

Hammad, Neveen. 2019. “Shackled to Economic Appeal: How Prison Labor 
Facilitates Modern Slavery While Perpetuating Poverty in Black 
Communities.” Social Policy and the Law 26(1):66-68. 

hooks, bell. 1989. “Choosing the Margins as a Space of Radical Openness.” 
Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. 36:15-23. 

Lamar, Kendrick. 2015. “Alright.” To Pimp a Butterfly. Los Angeles: Top 
Dawg; Aftermath; Interscope Records. 

Pulitzer. 2018. DAMN., by Kendrick Lamar. 
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kendrick-lamar. 

Smedley, Audrey, and Brian D. Smedley. 2005. “Race as Biology Is Fiction, 
Racism as a Social Problem Is Real.” American Psychological 
Association. 60(1):16-26. 

Smedley, Audrey and Brian D. Smedley. 2012. “Changing Perspectives on 
Human Variation in Science.” Race In North America:289-305. 
New York: Routledge. 

Smith, Justin M. 2012. “Maintaining racial inequality through crime control: 
mass incarceration and residential segregation Criminal, Social 
and Restorative Justice 15(4):469-84.  



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Sojoyner, Damien M. 2013. “Black Radicals Make for Bad Citizens: 
Undoing the Myth of the School to Prison Pipeline.” Berkeley 
Review of Education 4(2):241-63. 

Trust, Gary. 2024. “Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Blasts In at No. 1 on 
Billboard Hot 100.” https://www.billboard.com/lists/kendrick-
lamar-not-like-us-hot-100-number-one-debut/. 

Williams, Sharlyn D., Corlis Lewis. 2024. Moms and Black Sons: A 
Comprehensive Study of Complex Love and Racial Animus, Vol. 1 
- The Stories. Lulu Press, Inc. 

Zamora, Sylvia. 2022. Racial Baggage Mexican Immigrants and Race 
Across the Border. Standford: Stanford University Press. 

Zavattaro, Staci M. and Dominic Bearfield. 2022. “Weaponization of 
Wokeness: The Theater of Management and Implications for 
Public Administration.” Public Administration Review 82(3):585-
93. 

 
 
 
Dorcia White (She/Her) is a Cal State LA alumna who graduated 
summa cum laude with a Bachelor's in Sociology in Fall 2023. 
She is pursuing her Master’s in Sociology at Cal State LA, with 
plans to graduate in May 2026. Her research interests include 
forced migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 
housing justice, race and ethnicity, power dynamics between 
landlords and low-income African American renters, surveillance 
of low-income African American tenants, and the experiences of 
Black Section 8 mothers. Outside of CSULA, Dorcia presented 
her research at the 2025 Pacific Sociological Association (PSA) 
Conference in San Francisco. She serves as the first African 
American woman on the Board of Directors for FEAST and is the 
proud Chair of District 8 for the Alliance of Californians for 
Community Empowerment (ACCE) Los Angeles.


	Music Review: Analysis of Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy Performance - Dorcia White



