Grammy Awards 2016
- Maya Augustin
- Feb 17, 2016
- 7 min read
Grammy Awards 2016
SO! We all watched the Grammy awards 2016, and as always it was not one to be missed... Taylor swift was a big topic of conversation alongside Rhianna and of course Kendrick Lamar. Again so much to talk about to so let me brea- brea- break it down for you all with my wonderful subheadings :)
Taylor Swift
Taylor first got people's heads turning when she stepped on to the red carpet wearing a pink and red two piece bearing her amazingly toned midriff alongside bestie, selina Gomez, seen rocking a long sparkly blue dress with cut out sides and low cut cleavage. It wasn't the outfit that kept everyone's attention on Taylor but her speech after she received album of the year award. Although not mentioning his name- we can't help but think (and personally I will say confirm) she was Indirecting (although it was blatantly obvious she might as well have @'d him) KANYE WEST after his controversial lyrics featured on the song Famous from his new album The Life Of Pablo. Kanye said he made Taylor swift famous (for full story please see YEEZY blog on the AIB website) Taylor then responded in her speech by saying
“I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame, but if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world. Thank you for this moment."
Slight shade, slight pettiness and I would definitely like to add that if it was me I would have thrown a whole lot more of both, but it is the truth! Well said Tay Tay! You get the AIB stamp of approval! We believe you should always stand up for yourself and set the record straight if people are trying to take your shine. However, It leaves us confused because according to Kanye west's tweets (again refer to YEEZY blog if one missed out on this vital information) he and Taylor had an hour long conversation about his lyrics and she ok'd them for the go ahead!!!!!????!!!!!! Mmmmmm someone is lying here👀👀👀👀 .Well I told you it wouldn't be over between these two ... Personally I just wonder what Kim K thinks of it all.
Rhianna Navy!
Rhianna for the second year in a row failed to turn up to the Grammys and perform ... Her team took to Twitter to announce it is due to
^ explains it all really…. get well soon Rhi Rhi we need you to slay! Hopefully she just goes full out with an unbeatable performance next year.
The MAIN EVENT –Ya- Ya- Yasssssss! (Get it? lol)
It was Kendrick Lamar that stole the entire show and was the biggest topic of conversation this year at the awards with his huge, some say controversial, others say ground breaking, I say heart felt and exquisitely put together performance on Black Culture. An issue which is being hugely talked about recently due to the terrible police brutality in America, the political battle for president and of course the celebration of black history month over there (ours is in October...obvs… and when I say ours I mean in England for all my international folks! )
The Performance
Kendrick was seen walking out on stage to the song ‘the blacker the berry’ with his hands chained together and jail clothes on representing he was in prison, whilst the backup dancers were seen following behind him or around the back/side of the stage behind cell bars. Although not an actor, Kendrick played the character of a distraught, mistreated victim of the jail system extremely well. You could see the emotion in his face and throughout his body as he moved across the stage- coming from an acting background I can confirm it was definitely believable and would have taken many hours of rehearsals with his production team and choreographers to be able to get him to this point of conviction. No pun intended.
Moving on from the jail scene the stage erupted in to an African tribe themed display. Performing the song ‘alright’ the outfits of the dancers, including Kendrick’s, revealed glow in the dark paint in the pattern of tribal markings. There were African drums playing with fire in the middle of the stage, setting the scene of a jungle in which a ceremony would be taking place. The movement was amazing, the atmosphere felt electric as you saw all the celebrities cheering and raising their hands in the air for support towards Kendrick. Some were even seen touching their hearts showing they felt and believed every word the artist was saying. A final image of Africa being projected on to the screen with Compton written across it closed the performance with a big statement.
To Pimp A Butterfly – The Grammy Award winning Album
In his interview with ‘Rolling Stones’ magazine Kendrick Lamar describes the album “fearful, honest and unapologetic”. When asked about the title Kendrick remains very kittenish. He is quoted saying “Just putting the word ‘pimp’ next to ‘butterfly’ it’s a trip. That’s something that will be a phrase forever”. He continues to say “it will be taught in college courses- I truly believe that” The interviewer asks him ‘are you a pimp or a butterfly?’ Kendrick smiles and replies saying he could be both.
According to the interview Kendrick was searching through his channels on his tour bus when he came across the news of Trayvon Martin’s death. Growing up on the streets of Compton and being involved in altercations with the police most of his teenage life Kendrick Lamar said “It put a whole new anger inside of me” he reminisces saying “I remember how I felt being harassed, my partners being killed” from this anger he put pen to paper and within an hour, he had drafted verses to his song “The Blacker the berry”. (as performed on the grammy’s)
‘My nose is round and wide
You hate me don’t you?
You hate my people
Your plan is to terminate my culture”
Such strong lyrics made Lamar turn his attention to himself, questioning how he can jump on American for killing young black men, when young black men are often just as ‘good at it’. “Why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street/when gang banging make me kill a n*gga blacker than me / Hypocrite.”
In an interview with Billboard Kendrick expressed that some of the responsibility for killings of the young black Americans such as Michael brown lay with Black people themselves. This comment caused a lot of controversy with Kendrick’s fans some saying he sounded like a right wing apologist. Fellow rapper Azealia Banks, boldly said its ‘the dumbest sh*t I’ve ever heard a black man say”. In response to this Kendrick says he is not stupid quoting “I know history, I’m not talking about that, I’m talking from a personal stand point. I’m talking about gangbanging!”
From a young age Lamar was taught that change is something that starts from within. His Mum would always say “How you going to play the victim?” he agreed with this and said “I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself” – WISE WORDS KENDRICK!
AIB LESSON ALERT
We are strong believers in what Kendrick Lamar is saying here. It goes for everything in life, whether it’s your career or personal life or justice in the government system. You CAN NOT expect things to be handed to you on a plate because you ‘feel’ like you deserve them. Hard work is what creates change! This included finances and leading a better life. If you want something to happen DO something about it. This is exactly how The AIB Network started, we wanted to help pave our own careers and create opportunities for ourselves and for our audience so we just did it. In the words of drake and literally a phrase I say about 700 times a day- YOLO!
Please Continue Pimping that Butterfly!
The song ‘I’ Kendrick’s first single from his third studio album, was intended to inspire people to ‘Keep their heads up’ specifically for his friends in the penitentiary (prison) however it was therapeutic for himself as it helped ward off dark, negative thoughts. In the rolling stones interview Kendrick was quoted saying “My partner Jason Estrada told me ‘if you don’t attack it, it will attack you” meaning if you don’t stop the negative thoughts they will consume your mind and affect you on a daily basis. He went on to say “If you sit around feeling sad and stagnant, it going to eat you alive. I had to make that record. It’s a reminder. It makes me feel good”. – ya- ya –yassss! (again, I’m Hilarious) We love it!
The album – Produced by Mark ‘Sounwave’ Spears- is venturesome taking strong influence from 1970’s funk and jazz! Sounwave, who has known Kendrick since he was 16 years of age explains Kendrick likes to work ‘synesthetically’ meaning he talks in colours all the time. An example of this being ‘makes it sound purple or make it sound more light green’ (ooo very Artistic Kendrick). However if we are speaking like Kendrick then the album can mainly described as sounding like the colour black. There is a play on words throughout the album about African –American history. Referring to everything from; diaspora to the cotton fields to the Harlem renaissance to President Barak Obama,. There are mentions of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King even Moses! ‘King Kunta’ a James brown funk sounding beat portrays Kendrick imagining himself as a slave from ‘roots’. “Everybody wanna cut the legs off him/Black man taking no losses!”
Sounwave (Typing his name is becoming very annoying I keep adding in a ‘d’ lol clearly I’m not cool enough! Gosh Maya!) is quoted telling rolling stones mag. “To me the album is perfect for right now. If the world was happy, maybe we’d give you a happy album. But right now we are not happy.”
Very deep. We love what Kendrick is doing and how he is standing up and making change for what he believes in. Over all the Grammy awards were entertaining and had us all talking as per usual!
For your thoughts and opinions on this blog and the Grammy awards why not contact us via email on our contact page… We would love to hear from you!
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