For the first two hours of the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, performances were at worst sleep-inducing and at best entertaining in the most PG way.
But that all changed when Kendrick Lamar took the stage.
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We already knew from good kid, m.A.A.d. city and To Pimp a Butterfly that the Compton MC is cinematic -- and his performance Tuesday night was divided into three equally intense acts. The first was set in a jail cell with him and his dancers in chains for "Blacker the Berry," a fierce track about being black in America: "Institutionalize manipulation and lies/ Reciprocation of freedom only live in your eyes/ You hate me don't you?"
Then the night's leading nominee moved on to act 2, where a giant fire roared behind him as he gave a charged up performance of "Alright," an anthem of sorts for the Black Lives Matter movement. His third act at the mic was when you could see the fake bruise above his left eye.