One thing about me, I’m going to watch and evaluate controversial pieces of media and see
exactly why they’re actually controversial. The most recent controversial piece of media that
I consumed and thoroughly enjoyed had to be the 2025 Superbowl. Whilst Kendrick’s
Superbowl now holds the record for the most watched halftime show of all time, the
performance reportedly drew in 125 formal complaints to the FCC, with concerns of gang
affiliation, lack of diversity and provocative dancing.
Considering this was an American football game, I watched the live stream and stayed
awake past midnight to watch the performance live. As someone who listens to Kendrick
Lamar, I was anticipating to see whether or not Kendrick would be as political or as
philosophical as he usually is in his music. Right off the bat, we see Samuel L. Jackson (who’s
dressed up as Uncle Sam) starting off Kendrick’s Superbowl performance, calling it the
“Great American Game”. The layout of the Superbowl stage looked as though to be a video
game console, as well as the dancers having red, white and blue clothes to show America. At
this point I knew that Kendrick was going to weave in some political and philosophical
messages into his performance, which I was both excited for and scared for.
At the end of his first song, Kendrick says that “The revolution ‘bout to be televised you
picked the right time but the wrong guy”, most likely taking a jab at Donald Trump, which
held extra significance considering Trump was in attendance, as well as the fact that Trump
is the first sitting president to ever attend the Superbowl. Kendrick saying that the
revolution is about to be televised seems to play on the 1970 poem by Gil-Scott Heron,
which talks about how action needs to be invoked in real life rather than by watching TV.
Kendrick’s interpolation of the phrase hints at how national tragedies in modern day society
are often documented through the TV and through social media.
After performing Squabble Up, Uncle Sam (Samuel L. Jackson) yells “No, no, no, no, no! Too
loud, too reckless, too ghetto! Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game?” most
likely telling Kendrick to perform his more socially acceptable songs, or songs where the
focus isn’t political. This then leads Kendrick on to perform Humble, most likely because
Uncle Sam was telling him to humble himself. However, Kendrick starts to push his luck in
the “Great American Game” by rapping his song “DNA”, a song that addresses the
stereotype that African-American people are more likely to be criminals or drug addicts. He
then performs “Euphoria”, which is one of his diss tracks to Drake, and then “Man at the
Garden”, a song about manifesting a good life for Kendrick the people he cares about.
Whilst performing Man at the Garden, he has his friends around him, which Uncle Sam
regards as a “culture cheat code”, using video game language to show that he doesn’t find
this acceptable. Uncle Sam telling the scorekeeper to “deduct one life” not only continues
the video game theme, but it also alludes to the racist political environment of America, as
we’ve seen high statistics of police and government brutality towards African Americans.
Kendrick then performs “Peekaboo”, and towards the end of the song, he then teases the
instrumental of “Not Like Us” to which he says “I wanna perform they favourite song, but
you know they love to sue”, referring to how Drake sued UMG for defamation and
harassment over the song “Not Like Us”, which is directed as a diss to Drake, calling him a
pedophile as well as suggesting that he profits off of African-American culture, when Drake
was instead raised in a culturally Canadian-Jewish environment.
Kendrick had brought out SZA for the Superbowl, where they performed “Luther” and “All
the Stars” together, which Uncle Sam seemed to approve of, saying “That’s what America
wants! Nice and Calm!” This represents Kendrick assimilating into American culture by
performing songs that are not explicit to his African-American culture. But just when you
think Kendrick’s listened to Uncle Sam’s requests, and played along with the “Great
American Game” the instrumental of “Not Like Us” comes back. He then says “Forty acres
and a mule, this is bigger than the music”, which is a line that he’s said in songs like
“Alright”, a song about staying optimistic amidst political struggles. However, him saying
“Forty acres and a mule” refers to what African-Americans were falsely promised after being
freed from slavery. Kendrick continues to take jabs at Drake, by getting tennis player Serena
Williams to crip-walk during “Not Like Us”, most likely a jab to Drake considering he had
dated Serena between 2011 and 2015.
The song Kendrick decides to close with is “TV Off” holding significance considering after the
song ends, the words “Game Over” are displayed from the stands. This could mean two
things; it could mean that because Kendrick performed his political songs, he has lost the
“Great American Game”, which is also representative of how black Americans are standing
up to oppressive systems. It could also mean that the game is over because of the current
political state of America, considering Trump has followed through with Project 2025, which
has affected ethnic minority groups as well as the LGBTQ+ community.
Whatever message Kendrick was trying to project to America, he projected it effortlessly
and in a very entertaining way. I think that Kendrick’s Superbowl had to be one of the most
well thought out Superbowl’s, and considering there were a lot of hidden messages, I would
understand why some people had said that they didn’t understand Kendrick’s performance.
However, to those that said it was a bad Superbowl, or to those that didn’t initially
understand his performance, I’d advise them to go watch it again (and again and again).