Historical and social contextualization of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime show

“This is the great American Game,” Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, proclaims as a board seemingly portraying a game of tic-tac-toe lights up illuminating Kendrick Lamar. He begins his performance as dancers run out of a parked car dressed in red, white and blue.

“The revolution’s about to be televised, you picked the right time, but the wrong guy,” Lamar says as the beat drops. This rhetoric of revolution is nothing new to Lamar with a catalog of songs including “The Blacker the Berry” and “Ronald Regan Era,” which all speak to the power of political revolt. 

Within the first minute and a half of the performance, Lamar has already set the stage for a masterclass in political performance art. He uses visual symbolism and historical messaging to enforce this message throughout the thirteen minute performance. 

The usage of the American flag colors, the presence of Uncle Sam, the all black ensemble of dancers and performers all speak to the statement Kendrick is making. The statement of division in this country; racial division, political division, class division. 

After Lamar’s performance of “Squabble Up,” Jackson’s Uncle Sam cuts in, calling the performance too “loud” and “Ghetto.” 

The word ghetto is especially important in this performance because of its roots in the segregation of Black communities in Jim Crow-era America. The word is now often used in a derogatory manner to mock things deemed as “trashy,” especially impoverished neighborhoods. 

But also as Austin McCoy, a history professor at West Virginia University, stated it is a term often used to describe something for its “blackness.”

“When people use the term ‘that’s so ghetto,’ what they really mean is ‘that’s so black’ but they won’t say that part out loud,” said Dr. McCoy.

The connotation of blackness and poverty in the use of the word “ghetto” reveals how racial and economic biases are deeply intertwined in American society. 

This performance challenges the audience to confront these implicit associations and question how language reinforces systemic inequalities. By reclaiming or critically engaging with the term, the performance highlights the power dynamics at play in how we describe and perceive marginalized communities.

Jackson’s Uncle Sam question of “do you really know how to play the game?” hits on the societal demand of Black Americans to fit into societal constraints in order to be respected. 

This is only reinforced by Lamar’s performance of “They Not Like Us,” a song originally meant as a diss track on Canadian rapper Drake. But is repurposed in this performance as a statement on society. 

“There’s a cultural divide imma get it on the floor,” Lamar begins, “40 acres and a mule this is bigger than the music.”

As Lamar said, this is bigger than the music. At this moment Lamar is directly citing his purpose, they aren’t like us. He is speaking to the power imbalance in the American system and the racial injustice that Black Americans are still facing.

To cite this injustice he uses the phrase, “40 acres and a mule,” a phrase that references the promise made to formerly enslaved Black Americans after the Civil War as a part of Special Field Order No. 15. 

The order aimed to provide land to freed families, in the hopes of enabling them to achieve economic self-sufficiency. However, this order never came to fruition and the “40 acres and a mule” became just another broken promise to Black Americans. 

“They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence,” which speaks to the ways in which Black culture is often appropriated by White individuals and institutions while Black creators themselves are denied credit, opportunities, or economic benefits.

Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime performance was more than just a performance. it was a bold critique of the systemic inequalities that continue to shape America. 

By invoking historical references like “40 acres and a mule” and confronting the appropriation of Black culture, he challenged audiences to reckon with the nation’s unfulfilled promises and ongoing racial disparities. 

Through his lyricism, symbolism, and defiant presence, Lamar turned one of the biggest stages in the world into a moment of resistance, reminding us that the struggle for justice and true equality is far from over.

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