- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons hit the stage at Sunday’s Grammys, coming together for a head-turning (and head-pounding) team-up.
The artists joined forces for a mashup of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” for which they won the best rock performance Grammy, with Lamar’s “m.A.A.d City,” off of the rapper’s seven-times-nominated Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.
The band and rapper — dressed in white — rocked out together on a smoke-filled stage, strobe lights blazing. The sound cut out multiple times during Lamar’s rhymes, while many in the audience rose to their feet to dance or sing along, including Jay Z, Beyonce, Lorde, Katy Perry, Robin Thicke and Steven Tyler. The performers were later splattered in red paint during their mashup.
“We were a big fan of Kendrick’s. It was raw, ” Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds said after the performance. “The lines are blurred between genres. We were on the same page.”
Ahead of the awards, Lamar and Reynolds spoke with The Hollywood Reporter for its music issue,
PHOTOS: Kendrick Lamar, The King of the West Coast
“In a perfect world, it would be like the Hunger Games and at the end, me and Kendrick would light on fire,” Reynolds told THR of his hopes for the performance. Among Lamar’s pregame advice to his Imagine Dragons collaborators: “Don’t go against your own shit. … I don’t want anybody to do anything fake.” He also had high praise for the band, lauding its members’ “energy and stage presence.”
For more from Lamar, check out THR‘s profile of the rapper here. For complete Grammys coverage, visit THR.com/grammys.
Roy Trakin contributed reporting.
Related Stories
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day