Kendrick Lamar explains why he performs unreleased material on live television

Compton rapper explains decision behind his song choice for Grammy Awards show

Kendrick Lamar has spoken of his decision to play previously unheard material at his Grammy Awards 2016 appearance it has emerged in a recent interview (February 17).

The singer – who picked up Best Rap Album at The 58th Grammy Awards Ceremony on Sunday (February 14) – is known for surprising fans and audience members when playing live on television with unheard, unreleased music. He played unheard tracks alongside music from the award winning ‘To Pimp a Butterfly Album’, with an unreleased track dedicated to the death of Trayvon Martin by neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman.

In an interview with 2 Dope Boyz, Lamar explained that he sees television as an opportunity to play unreleased and untitled material, as he wanted the music to originally appear on his albums.

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““You see all these performances on these late night shows…I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album” he explained. “But I think probably close to ten songs that I’m in love with that I’ll still play and still perform that didn’t make the cut.”

You can see Kendrick performing at the 58th Awards ceremony in the video player below. The full video of the performance has since been removed from YouTube.

Speaking to Billboard prior to the performance, Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich said: “Kendrick came to us and said that we live in a time where these issues confront us every day and that it’s important that they be given a public forum, and he would like to use his x number of minutes to create a great performance that is consistent with his this year. It is overtly political and it is overtly provocative, and I think if nothing else it’s going to give people something to think about and talk about.”

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