Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons hit the stage at Sunday’s Grammys (Jan. 26), 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 Kendrick 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 all 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.
Soon after the performance, Imagine Dragons debuted the remix to “Radioactive,” featuring Kendrick Lamar on iTunes.
“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 pre-game 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, praising its members’ “energy and stage presence.”