Monday, February 29, 2016

Logos: Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar appeals to people's logic as he performs in the 2016 Grammy Awards. Lamar's entire performance showcases certain things associated with the black minority. Lamar first coming out in chains, and his band being in cells, not only makes people think of mass incarceration, but also slavery. I believe it can also make people question whether slavery is really over, today.  It's important that he did this because mass incarceration is such a big deal in the black community and slavery is such an important part of our history.
Lamar's next sequence is him performing his song, "Alright" in front of a fire with people doing what appears to be African traditional dances. This makes the audience think about their roots and also makes non-minorities think of where the African Americans came from as well.
Ending his performance with the map of Africa and "Compton" written inside is done I believe to bring all African Americans together. I believe it reminds people that even if you're a first generation African or a African American with family from the U.S., we are all seen as black in the eyes of non-minorities. This makes people think that we as a black community need to stand together and fight for each other, not divide ourselves.
-Kumam B. Khasar

4 comments:

  1. Logos is definitely shown through the real life events Kendrick Lamar demonstrated in his performance. The chains were really powerful in his demonstration in showing us how brutally tortured and dehumanized African Americans were in the past and sometimes even in the present.

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  2. The performance shows a lot of how blacks are getting label. In many eyes they see the bad about blacks not the good.

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  3. I really like your line about whether we are maybe “enslaved by the system”. I also think Kendrick’s message was to African Americans than anyone.

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  4. Kendrick is very straight forward with his message in this performance. I saw a short part of an interview with the dancers performing with him before the show and the question was asked, "You guys know this is going to be a very controversial performance, right?" and the dancers knew that and expected it to be controversial in order to send the message that there is still progress to be made in equality for all.
    -Aaron I

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