S
ay what you want about Kendrick Lamar, but if you found his halftime show boring, it likely just went over your head.
The 59th Superbowl game recently took place in the Caesars Superdome Arena in New Orleans featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kendrick Lamar, a 22-time Grammy winner and winner of the Pulitzer Prize was chosen to perform for the halftime show. There is a rigorous process to choose each year’s performers in order to, as The Pioneer Woman puts it, “put on a big enough show to rival the game itself.”
Kendrick Lamar is a rapper best known for his music and lyricism, but he is also well known for his political activism, especially concerning issues like racial equality.
His feature as the superbowl halftime show artist was announced on September 8th, 2024, and met with excitement and anticipation from fans wondering what he would choose for the show: what songs, what dances, what features, and most importantly, what themes and messages.
Lamar is well-known for the depth and symbolism of his music and performances: like his diamond-encrusted thorn crown debuted with his 5th album, Mr. Morale & The Big Stepper. Because of his history of being open with his political views and involved in activism, viewers were wondering what his message and theme would be for this Super Bowl performance, especially considering the current political climate in America.
The halftime show featured his songs Squabble Up, Humble, DNA, Euphoria, Man at the Garden, Peekaboo, Luther ft. SZA, All the Stars ft. SZA, Not Like Us, and TV Off, created a 13-minute long show featuring mostly his recent hits, and nothing before 2017.
This show was full of symbolism and left fans divided on whether he delivered or whether the NFL made a mistake in choosing him to perform.
Whether you enjoyed the show as another one of Lamar’s craft masterpieces or thought it was a waste of time, Lamar’s show was undeniably filled with important and relevant symbolism concerning issues of cultural unrest, racial and political tension, and racial injustice that is important to respect and examine.
The Game Motif
Lamar performed at one of the biggest sports games in America. The show opened on a stage laid out in the image of a PlayStation video game controller. Additionally, Samuel L. Jackson announces that “this is the great American game” at the very beginning and later asks Kendrick, “Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game?”
The very last line of the performance was “Game Over.” The motif of a game was likely representing the game many artists seem to play of complacency and fitting into the mold set out for them in exchange for fame and remain unblemished. Lamar’s performance detests this and highlights the importance of using your voice and fame to speak up and speak out.
The Revolution
One of the lines most talked about from the performance was “The Revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy.”
The first part of this statement is likely a nod to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” about how the media will always ignore racism, so the people themselves are responsible for the change they want to see. Lamar’s performance was undeniably the embodiment of this, as he took it into his own hands to create a powerful performance full of meaning, knowing it may not gain him more popularity and may get him in trouble. It’s clear that Lamar’s motive for this halftime show was not fame, it was standing up for the values he believes in.
Uncle Sam
The performance featured Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, who played the villain throughout, telling Lamar how to “play the game.” He represented a part of the government trying to stop Lamar from sharing his message of the show and being “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.” Jackson’s character embodied the essence of the censorship and oppression of expression plaguing our nation today.
Lights
At one point in the performance the crowd is shown with lights that seem to spell out: WARNING WRONG WAY. And later spelling out: GAME OVER. In light of his message of racial and political injustice in America, this message is likely meant to call out the way much of the government and legislation along with the social atmosphere of America seems to be moving away from equality for all and regressing into an attitude of complacency with injustice and inequity. Lamar is warning the American people that this is the wrong way to be going.
American Flag
Lamar’s all-black team of dancers wore the colors red, white, and blue, and at one point arranged themselves into two halves of the American flag with Lamar singing in the middle.
Undeniably this was meant to be a commentary on the divisiveness of the current American political atmosphere. But many fans have speculated it also commented on the idea that America was built on the backs of slaves, as further developed when Lamar said, “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music”, which likely nodded to Union General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15, which gave newly freed slaves confiscated Confederate land in the South after the civil war and their emancipation.
Gaza Flag
During the show, one performer unfurled a flag embellished with Gaza and Suden whilst atop the car in protest of the two Middle Eastern wars occurring right now. While this protest was not part of Lamar’s plan for the show and was ultimately cut out of the performance footage, this protest was still an important part of the performance and certainly added to the theme of political unrest evident throughout Lamar’s show.
Costumes
The costumes were also important. Lamar was trolled online largely for his bell-bottom jeans, and while they were a funny choice to see the rapper in, they are likely a part of his bigger commentary. Previous to the show there had been many comments made about rappers baggy jeans being too “ghetto”, and during the show Samuel L. Jackson made comments about Lamar being “too ghetto”. It’s more than likely Lamar chose Bell Bottoms to send a message, that it’s less about the pants and more about the person wearing them.
He changed his jeans and still received backlash, which simply proved this point. His jacked spelled Gloria, about his singing with SZA, and his lowercase a-chain could have another meaning than to reference his line about Drake in “Not Like Us.”
He also did not shy away from representing his hometown of Compton, California, despite its reputation for poverty and gang violence. The dancer’s costumes, as aforementioned, were red, white, and blue, and many viewers have speculated they duly represented the gangs in Compton: the Pirus and the Crips.
Stage Layout
The stage was laid out in a video game controller, but there were multiple different areas they performed in. The performance started in an area where countless dancers got out of the same car and arranged on steps into an American flag. Another performed inside an X. One stage that stood out to me was the circular stage, where the dancers marched along the sloped stage in a circle. No matter how far they walked, they ended up at the bottom. Based on the political and social commentary throughout the rest of the show, this could have been in place to represent minority or marginalized communities who are being put right where they started in the context of the current political atmosphere.
Drake Beef
Many fans were wondering if Lamar would include his Song of the Year, “Not Like Us” in light of the recent lawsuit from Drake over the song. Lamar, as many predicted, did not disappoint. He teased the song early in the performance, saying, “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.”
He later played “Not Like Us” but had to tone down some of the language. I would say he made up for the tone down though, as he delivered the line, “Say Drake, I hear you like them young” while smiling unwaveringly and defiantly into the camera.
Kendrick Lamar made it very clear that his popularity and personal legal troubles were not the focus of this show, but rather that there was something bigger going on.
Serena Williams
During “Not Like Us” Serena Williams was featured doing the crip walk. Her debut was likely for two reasons. One was that she used to be romantically involved with Drake, and after it ended he sang about her and her husband disrespectfully, breaking the unspoken rule of rap where you don’t diss someone who can’t reply in a song, a rule Drake also broke during the diss track battle between him and Lamar when Drake implied Lamar’s kids weren’t his own.
The other, more notable reason for her debut was the controversy in 2012 over her win celebration. In 2012 Serena Williams won gold at the Olympics and did a crip walk in celebration. This moment received intense backlash from people saying she was glorifying gang culture.
Her debut during the halftime show, in the context of Lamar’s message throughout the show was likely a defiance to both Drake, who can’t seem to get over her all these years later, and all the people who criticized her joy at the 2012 Olympics because it didn’t fit their approved template of a celebratory dance.
Overall, I thought it was great seeing Kendrick Lamar stay true to his art and himself as someone who believes in things, stands for things and preaches things that pick apart American culture. He may not have chosen only his biggest hits, but he presented his deeper songs with meaning relevant to the message of his performance. Most people will likely be talking about Drake beef or SZA’s features(understandably), but I encourage you to look into the deeper meanings of the performance: the cultural unrest, the racial and political tension, and racial injustice.
In the context of the federal government discouraging celebrations of black history month, this performance was especially brave and revolutionary. On America’s biggest stage, Lamar used heavy symbolism, intentional debuts, and meticulous production to shine a bright light on race relations, to celebrate black culture, and send a message revealing how far we still have to go as a nation to truly have liberty and justice for all.
