Kendrick Lamar Owned Essence Fest With a Mic & Nothing Else

FUSE TV - Kendrick Lamar Owned Essence Fest With a Mic & Nothing Else

If you've ever seen a Kendrick Lamar awards show performance, you know they're often really great and really theatrical. Whether it was his memorable 2014 GRAMMYs performance with Imagine Dragons or his incredible 2016 GRAMMYs performance,  they're known for being over the top and visually stunning.

You can imagine the surprise when Kendrick took the Essence Fest stage Sunday night with just a mic, his band, and a back-drop screen that simply read the title of his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. Where were the costumes? Where was the pyrotechnics? The question isn't "where" but "why," and the answer is, "because he doesn't need it...any of it."

Echoing the famous Nas single title, all he needs is one mic.

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