Yes, you read the title correctly. Back in 2013, just off the heels of the success of good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar, one of the modern greats of hip hop, collaborated with underground, obscure, never before heard band Imagine Dragons.
Before you ask why, let's try to understand how. How did this collaboration come to be? To be honest, I couldn't tell you. It was probably some executive meddling on behalf of their labels.
From a business standpoint, it's genius, put one of the whitest bands in the industry next to the face of a counter-cultural icon and see what happens. It worked really well for Run-D.M.C. back in the day, and surprisingly it works well here too. There's probably some commentary I could make about that, but I'm not too interested in exploring that right now.
What I will say though is that Kendrick was nominated for seven grammys that year...and won none of them. Yeah, he was even nominated for Rap Album of the Year, but was snubbed by Macklemore of all people. But the Grammys having a racial bias isn't anything too new for people who actually watch the program.
Check out the performance below!
