To support this year’s “Witness Greatness” tagline we wanted to create a film showcasing the idea that (musical) greatness can come from anywhere but it always ends up in the same place... the GRAMMYs show and stage.

Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” had already become the unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. Then he was nominated for 11 GRAMMYs, the most ever for a hip hop artist. We decided to go back to his hometown of Compton, the city that inspired him and made him who he is today, to see what this powerful song and influential artist meant to its residents. Everyone in the film was a Compton resident including the Mayor herself.

At a time when other award shows were being criticized for their lack of diversity, showcasing the greatness of not just Kendrick Lamar but the community that inspired him created amazingly positive sentiments for the GRAMMYs on social media.

With zero paid media behind it, the film garnered 197 million impressions, inspired more than 1000 articles to be written about it—and even earned the support of figures like DeRay McKesson, an American civil rights activist, politician and member of the Movement for Black Lives. Not to mention many unsolicited celebrity retweets. In an award show format that’s been seeing double digit year over year declining viewership, the GRAMMYs for one, stayed about even to the previous year.