While Kendrick Lamar has been receiving praise for his electrifying and moving Grammy Awards performance, there is someone singing a different tune. Director Wendel Patrick is accusing Kendrick Lamar and crew of stealing the concept of Kendrick’s Grammy performance from the musical, ‘The Last Jimmy.’ In the musical, Patrick says they too had musicians dressed in jail cells, dancers in prison outfits, the main character in chains, an African dance transition, and a back screen projecting Africa.
“I had the honor of musical directing Dice Raw’s “The Last Jimmy” at Grand Performances in Los Angeles last July. There were about 3000 people in attendance. We had musicians in what appeared to be gold jail cells (check), dancers in prison outfits (check), Dice paraded out in chains around his wrists (check), African dance transition (check) large backscreen projecting Africa (check).”
He went on to say that Dice Raw and the production company worked on the production for two years. Patrick says although people say that imitation is the best form of flattery, it’s only flattery when people know you were imitated. Patrick has read posts saying Kendrick should take his show to Broadway, and he is outraged because that is the exact direction they wanted to go in with ‘The Last Jimmy’.
“I have mixed feelings. The performance last night was great, and, if the elements were copied, I doubt Kendrick would have had any knowledge of it. I just don’t want to see what “The Last Jimmy” creator Phillip Brown and Dice Raw have worked for for three years just be taken from them simply because someone has enough resources to take an idea and present to a much much larger group of people, said Patrick.”
Do you think Kendrick ripped his entire performance from the musical, or is this guy reaching?
