The newest Superbowl Halftime Show occurred on Feb. 9th, with renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar opting for a substance over style approach. The show featured heavy use of themes and on-the-nose political messages, which resulted in a polarizing audience reaction.
However, because of this focus on themes and messages over the usual spectacle and flair that’s come to be expected with these shows, many people found this halftime show to be “just okay” or severely lacking in grandiose spectacle and memorability. But despite the somewhat mixed reception, Kendricks’s halftime show is the most watched live halftime show in history with over 133.5 million people tuning in to watch the show.
Part of this mixed reception was due to how most of Kendricks’s songs he featured on the show weren’t his biggest hits but rather the ones off his newest album “GNX.” While I do agree that he should’ve tried to include more of his more popular and accessible songs, he couldn’t really do this as in 2022 Kendrick already performed many of his most popular songs in the Dr. Dre Hip-Hop halftime show.
However, Kendrick predicted this outcome of having a mixed reception and countered the negative reception before critiques could say anything. He did this through the character of Uncle Sam, played by actor Samuel L. Jackson. Throughout Kendricks’s performance, Uncle Sam frequently gets offended by the show, telling him “Mr. Lamar, Do you really know how to play the game?” This is the first big reference to Kendricks’s theme of the “rigged game that is America,” which he will vastly expand on throughout the performance.
Outside of this line from Uncle Sam towards the opening this gaming theme is also reflected by the controller buttons on the field and the background messages in the show that are displayed throughout it like “wrong way” and “game over.” On a more subtle level many of Kendrick’s songs he performs, he does on a different button on the stage. This represents that he might be “pushing some of the audience’s buttons,” this also reinforces the idea that Kendrick knew the backlash this performance would receive.
Throughout the show as Kendrick performs, he endures heckling from Uncle Sam who awards Kendrick when he performs his more accessible and “nice” songs and scolds him when he performs his more niche and “Ghetto” songs. These insults were chosen because they are the most common insults employed in the genre of hip hop and rappers to discredit their art and talent.
Uncle Sam’s exact line insults when he first stopped Kendrick were “No, no, no, too loud, to reckless, too ghetto.” These insults outside of their application to rap culture, also apply to things Kendrick has heard countless times throughout his own life, a shared experience he shares with many black people throughout America.
Kendrick performs “Squabble Up,” and right before the song starts he says one of his most on-the-nose messages “The revolution about to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy,” he says it’s the right time because America is extremely divided currently and is purposely being pitted against itself to distract from “The rigged game,” that is happening in the U.S. This theme of Revolution and division is further strengthened by a person running out on the field during Kendrick’s performance with a Palestine flag in protest of the war. This ties into Kendricks themes humorously well, as this happening of course was completely unplanned and showcases America’s current state of division and likely coming revolution Kendrick speaks of.
He then says the wrong guy though because Kendrick is not going to be polite and subtle with his messaging, he’s going to be in your face and adamant about it. This theme of Kendrick being the wrong guy works especially well when you consider some of his previous works like “To Pimp a Butterfly,” where the cover of the album is him over a US congressman with X’s over his eyes, showing that Kendrick has always been much more adjacent to Malcolm X sort of political figure rather than a Martin Luther King.
After Uncle Sam’s interruption where he calls Kendrick’s songs “Ghetto,” Kendrick plays his song, “Humble,” while background dancers form an American flag around him that is divided. The split flag of course represents how split America is as a people.
Staying on the theme of division, Kendrick has been extraordinarily vocal in the past on uniting the blood and crips gangs from Compton, this theme can be seen in his Not Like Us music video, his concerts, and especially throughout the halftime show itself as most of the background dancers don red or blue outfits representing the gang’s peaceful unity.
This message of unity not just for the gangs but all of America is heavily present throughout the show as the background dancers share the US colors and so does Kendrick, who is wearing blue, and SZA who is wearing red, showing them coming together and performing.
This goes a layer deeper when you realize that Kendrick is implying that America should be united with itself and not split like the crips and bloods who also share U.S. colors when together.
Kendrick’s inclusion of the gaming theme likely refers to the rigged game that is America for its poorer people, especially for black people reflecting Kendrick’s life struggles and the struggles of millions of others across America being represented during a Super Bowl halftime show.
This idea of a rigged game is seen again in the performance as Not Like Us is teased a couple of times before being played because the song is not corporate-friendly and is not the kind of song to be played at the Superbowl with Kendrick himself saying “You know they love to sue” in reference to Drake suing Kendricks Label. This line also shows Drake’s role as a willing player in this rigged game who represents complacency within the corrupt system.
Right before Kendrick performs Not Like Us, he says Kendrick then follows that line with “This a cultural divide ima get it on the flow,” this reinforces the themes of a divided America that have been present throughout the show with the split US flag and the segregated colors. “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music,” this is in reference to the well-known reparations African Americans were promised but never received. The flow part of that line refers to Kendrick bringing rapping into the broader zeitgeist that the Superbowl allows him to and the cultural divide on how not everyone wants rap culture to be in this big of a spectacle.
“This is bigger than the music.” Kendrick is blatantly stating that this show is not about Kendrick’s greatest hits, it’s about the messages he’s sending to America. “They tried rigging the game, but you can’t fake influence,” the “game” theme continues here on top of this tying into the lawsuit with Drake trying to sue Kendrick’s Label but failing and the much broader rigged game that is American life as a black person.
But despite these hardships, Kendrick is still able to provide a positive influence to many who watch him by uniting otherwise enemies like the blood’s and crips under one flag, and on a more broad scale uniting some of the American people throughout the years with albums like “Mr. Morale” and “To Pimp a Butterfly” existing to help people through there darker days.
Once Not Like Us finally starts, Kendricks’s theme of America’s unity hits its apex as all the previously segregated background dancers unite and listen to the song that was able to bring so many people who were supposedly rivals together in real life, if not just for a little bit.
During Not Like Us Kendrick looks directly into the camera and name-drops Drake saying “Hey Drake, I hear you like ’em young.” For a slight amount of context, there was much speculation as to whether the song would even be performed due to its sensitive nature and taboo topic of pedophilia.
Kendrick not only calls Drake out to all of America but also goes against America/ Uncle Sam itself by rebelling against the system on the biggest stage of America by saying something so un-corporate friendly. This messaging hit even harder as Kendrick not only sent this message out to everyone watching in America but also to President Donald Trump himself, who is the first sitting president to ever attend a Superbowl. Kendrick is saying all of this knowing that despite all these factors of the rigged game going against him, the people are still with him and love the song.
Serena Williams can also be seen crip walking to Not Like Us which is especially noteworthy as she is not only one of Drakes’s exes, but she also got in a massive amount of backlash for previously Crip walking at a game, so just like Kendrick, she is going against the system.
To end his performance Kendrick performed his song “TV Off,” which tied in perfectly to his message of unity and revolution that he wants for America.
A more subtle detail is when TV off starts the background dancers return to their segregated states that they were in for most of the show. This shows that despite Kendrick’s best efforts he can’t fix the state of divided America on his own, we have to do it. This also reflects that despite his best efforts he could only ever unite the crips and bloods for only one night with occasions like the Pop Show in Chicago because Kendrick can’t cause massive change on his own.
Kendrick ends the show with the background dancers still divided because that is the current state of America, very divided. The performance then officially ends with Kendrick saying “Turn this TV off,” followed by a massive game-over sign in the crowd. The meaning here is straightforward as he’s referring to the Drake beef and how he won it, but he’s also referring to how despite how rigged the game is with coming up in America as a disadvantaged black person.
Despite this disadvantage though he won the game and performed on the biggest stage in the world while simultaneously telling audiences to turn their TV off as Kendricks’s final act of revolution against the rigged game that is America.
Kendrick said so much in his halftime performance about the divided state of America, the likely coming revolution, and the rigged game that is America for black people. But despite all of Kendricks’s efforts to try and unify people on both smaller scales with the Bloods and the crips gangs, and on the much larger scale that he’s done with Albums like “To Pimp a Butterfly,” he can’t do it on his own. Kendrick does not suffer from a savior complex, he is not claiming he can fix things, in his own famous words in his song Savior, “Kendrick made you think about it, but he is not your savior.” Individuals can only do so much for the state of society and that’s what Kendrick is trying to tell us, that everyone needs to come together and start working for a better future, especially to help those whom the game is more rigged against.
