Kendrick Lamar made history at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans last Sunday. Not only was he the first rapper to ever perform a solo rap halftime show, but his striking performance has become the most watched halftime show of all time, with over 133 million people tuning in. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I strongly urge you to watch! Despite controversy, this extremely significant performance seemed to be the final blow to end Lamar’s long-standing feud with Drake and a symbolism-loaded commentary on American culture.
The show opens on a PlayStation-controller-themed set with Samuel L. Jackson moderating the show as Uncle Sam. The image of Uncle Sam has historically been a representation of the United States government and culture, as well as propaganda to get people to join the military. A major theme across Lamar’s music is his empowerment of Black voices and reclamation of Black culture—ideas that were strongly conveyed throughout his halftime show in many ways. Casting Jackson, a major Black cultural icon, in the role of Uncle Sam is a striking decision in itself—a possible nod to the fact that America was built on the labor of Black people. Jackson begins by welcoming us to “the great American game,” a reference not only to the game of football or the video-game-themed show, but likely to the way the U.S. government tends to play with and control many of its citizens.
Lamar begins his show with a teaser of an unreleased song and an iconic statement: “The revolution ‘bout to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy.” I discovered this was a reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which was originally written as a call to action regarding Black liberation. The internet took Lamar’s statement to have two different possible meanings. Some thought it could be a nod to President Donald Trump, who was present at the Super Bowl, suggesting that America “picked the wrong guy” to be president. Others thought the “wrong guy” may be referring to Lamar himself—that picking him to perform the halftime show was dangerous due to his fearlessness to express himself candidly for all of America to see. I’m inclined to believe there is some truth to both of these interpretations.
After Lamar performs his first song, “Squabble Up,” Uncle Sam again complains that his performance is “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.” Again, here is a reference to American society and its tendency to single out and suppress Black people and culture. Lamar then jumps straight into “Humble,” with his all-Black dance team clad in red, white and blue, forming the striking image of a divided American flag. This seems to be a clear allusion to the cultural and political divide in America—which is particularly relevant today. The American flag formation may also be another implication that Black people’s efforts have gone unrecognized despite them having formulated a great deal of American culture.
A couple of songs later, Uncle Sam steps back in to criticize Lamar again, ordering, “Scorekeeper, deduct one life.” This statement, while keeping on par with the video game theme, is clearly pointing to the many Black lives lost to police brutality and the systemic discrimination and incarceration of Black Americans. Lamar then teases the performance of his Grammy-winning smash hit, “Not Like Us,” but decides to slow it down first after throwing some not-so-subtle shade at Drake and referencing his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group for releasing the diss track: “I wanna perform their favorite song but you know they love to sue.” He then brings out SZA (one of Drake’s exes, by the way) to perform a couple of slower songs. Uncle Sam praises Lamar for this switch, declaring that “nice and calm” is what America wants to see. Just as he is in the middle of urging Lamar to keep up the good work and not to “mess this up,” we hear the intro to “Not Like Us” begin to play.
Lamar prefaces the performance of his infamous diss track by pronouncing, “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music.” This is arguably one of the most explicit symbolic statements in Lamar’s entire performance. Forty acres and a mule is a reference to a promise that was made and broken on behalf of union generals following the abolition of slavery; freed Black Americans were told they would receive reclaimed Confederate land in order to help them repair their lives. However, the vast majority never got any of this promised land—the beginning of a long history of political moves made to dismiss and devalue Black people in America even after slavery had been abolished. Lamar tells us point-blank that the issues he addresses here are “bigger than the music.” With this, he acknowledges that while there is undoubtedly a lot of Drake shade in his performance, that’s not all there is to it. After all, one of the biggest reasons for their feud was what Lamar saw to be Drake’s lack of honest, non-commercialized representation of Black culture.
Another power move Lamar pulled out during “Not Like Us” was a special appearance from tennis pro Serena Williams, the second of Drake’s exes to be featured in this performance. Some called her appearance during this song “petty,” claiming she did it only as a way to “troll her ex.” However, there is a deeper history here than meets the eye. During the song, Williams can be seen crip-walking under a light post. This move is, for one, an homage to the fact that Lamar and Williams both originate from Compton, the birthplace of much of rap and hip-hop culture. Secondly, this is another powerful reclamation of Black culture. Williams got into trouble for performing this same move in celebration after winning the gold medal for tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Doing it again here on the field during the most highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show in history was iconic, to say the least.
Overall, Lamar’s show stirred up a lot of controversy. Many people loved it; he had the entire stadium screaming along to the “A minor” lyric in “Not Like Us.” However, others claimed that Lamar’s halftime show was the worst they’ve ever seen—complaining that it was unentertaining and difficult to understand. The irony in these opinions is laughable, as these critics have completely neglected the bold messaging and storytelling Lamar promised—and did not fail—to deliver in his performance. Haters of the performance are proving Lamar’s own claims correct in their adoption of Uncle Sam’s mindset about Black artistry being “too reckless” and “too ghetto.” I acknowledge that as a white person, I will never be able to understand all of the subtle nuances of this performance fully. But while Lamar is speaking directly to Black Americans here, I think that we all can and should listen to his message and learn from what he has to say.