by Noah Redmond
Super Bowl LIX was held in New Orleans on Sunday, February 9th. The game itself is usually the main event, but this year’s halftime show was highly anticipated and better than the actual game. The hype was for Kendrick Lamar, who performed the whole show impressively.
There are many halftime shows to reflect on, such as the west coast show from 2022, which included Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige. Kendrick also was part of that show, but the difference between 2022 and now is that he headlined the entire halftime show. This is a historical moment for hip hop, considering no rapper has gotten the chance to perform the show on their own.
Looking into his background, Kendrick is a very quiet artist. He drops his music and isn’t heard from until the next time he releases music, which is a very big reason why he’s nicknamed, “The Boogeyman.” Kendrick loves to hide meanings and messages through his music and this has held true for most, if not all, of his career spanning from “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” all the way to his most recent album “GNX.” It’s said that due to his very introspective and complex style of music he isn’t fully appreciated by most people, and some might say his music is boring to listen to and his style makes him unable to make very “boppy” hit songs. This also trickled down to people questioning whether he can battle rap.
All of these thoughts and opinions on the limits of Kendrick’s penmanship were flipped on their heads last year when hip hop witnessed not only arguably the most important rap battle ever between Kendrick and Drake, but also we witnessed Kendrick’s most active year as he kept going after the battle by doing a concert on Juneteenth, dropping a surprise untitled song on September 11th, releasing a surprise album November 22nd, and announcing a tour with SZA.
As far as the audience can see, it looks like his accomplishments this past year are also growing. Again, he’s the first rapper to headline the halftime show by himself, and the hit song “Not Like Us” won all 5 Grammys for which it was nominated. He’s now the first rapper to hit 100 million monthly Spotify listeners, the first rapper to chart 4 albums on the top 10 on the Billboard 200, and the first living male soloist in history to chart 3 solo albums in the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
All these accomplishments make his rival, Drake, look horrible since he called Kendrick’s music bad, and now Kendrick’s song about him is being awarded and played all over the world. While Drake has had a pretty horrible year, after the rap beef, he’s fallen. He’s released poor-quality music and taken the song “Not Like Us” to court along with companies UMG and Spotify. Ever since the beef, Drake continually proves Kendrick’s point that he’s not of the hip hop culture with his actions.
To me, this year’s halftime show was the best I’ve seen, with tons of layered messages. However, a lot of people were disappointed at how the performance played out. At the start, we’re shown a sort of game pad, reminiscent of the PlayStation controller powering up from 0 to 100. After the completion, 10 seconds of the instrumental to “wacced out murals” plays while Samuel L. Jackson pops up, dressed in the attire of Uncle Sam — a representative of the US government, while also naming himself “your uncle, Sam,” as he introduces everyone to what he calls the “Great American Game.”
Kendrick is shown on top of a GNX, the car his latest album was named after, rapping the teaser to his GNX album. This song was originally a minute long, but in the performance, he extends the song and adds about another 20 seconds. Right after the song ends, he shouts out Gil Scott-Heron by announcing, “The revolution is about to be televised; you picked the right time but the wrong guy.”
Immediately after, “squabble up” plays with Jackson deciding to interrupt and say, “NO NO NO NO NOOO. Too loud, too reckless, too… ghetto! Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!” Jackson reflects the culture of white America with his sentiments, highlighting that you can’t succeed in America without playing the game by the standards that Americans perceive as “socially acceptable.”
The next song is “HUMBLE,” one of Kendrick’s most streamed tracks. Kendrick raps in the middle of the male dancers who are forming an American flag with the colors of their outfits. Another popular track, “DNA,” follows this. On his album, he samples a Fox News segment in this song; Fox News actually called this “the worst halftime show” and “unwatchable.”
Two newer tracks, “Euphoria” and an acapella doo wop version of “man at the garden” played. Then, Jackson comes back on screen to say, “You brought your homeboys with you. The ‘ol culture cheat code. Scorekeeper, deduct one life.”
“peekaboo” then starts, and in the middle of the song, Kendrick stops to talk to the female dancers mentioning he wants to play the audience’s favorite song “Not Like Us,” but “You know they love to sue,” so he decides to think on it and brings out R&B sensation SZA to sing “luther” and “All The Stars.”
Samuel Jackson comes out one last time to say, “YEAH, that’s what I’m talking about! That’s what America wants, nice and calm, you’re almost there don’t mess this-” and “Not Like Us” plays, but Kendrick adds in some very important lyrics. “It’s a cultural divide I’mma get it on the floor; 40 acres and a mule this is bigger than the music, yeah they tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence.” He then ends the performance off with “tv off.”
With Kendrick Lamar, there’s always a message in whatever he does, and I believe this to be true about his halftime performance with the focal point being fixated on black Americans, specifically hip-hop artists and their relationship with the rest of America, starting off with our “Uncle Sam.”
Samuel L Jackson is cosplaying Uncle Sam, a representation of the United States, but more specifically the government. The importance of having Jackson play as Uncle Sam is that he’s known for playing anti-black antagonist characters like in the film “Django Unchained,” so he’s the best person to play this role. He welcomes us to the “Great American Game,” and this can be interpreted in multiple ways. The game can be noted as the stage that was used to perform on the whole halftime show, which was an actual game controller, but it has 3 other underlying meanings.
The great American game can be looked at as the Super Bowl, annually the biggest televised sporting event in the country. While that one seems plausible, I like thinking that the “game” can also be looked at as the rap game. Rap artists have to compete in order to become successful, which is what we call the rap game. This meaning fits in the most with what I believe to be the main message of the performance, because whether or not you (the player) win in the rap game, it’s all based on the audience determining if your music is interesting, or for the higher-ups in the industry to determine if your music is profitable enough. Until now, the person Kendrick just won a rap battle with, Drake, has been the perfect player for this game.
Kendrick says “The revolution will be televised; you picked the right time but the wrong guy.” This is a reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Gil said this to African Americans to emphasize that true social change won’t happen on the TV, but rather when the TV is off, when people decide to start making a difference in society.
Kendrick, however, is saying he will televise THIS revolution, right here on the halftime stage, live for the whole nation to see. The “you picked the right time but the wrong guy” part is him saying it wasn’t only the right time for the people to choose someone to be the greatest in rap, but it was also the right time for the NFL to choose a rapper to headline the show. However, it was the wrong person as Kendrick will make sure his performance isn’t just a performance, but also a message for all of America to witness.
After this is “squabble up” and Uncle Sam interrupts, insulting his song and questioning if Kendrick can truly play the game. This is an upbeat, boppy song and the main point is telling people to squabble up or get ready to fight because Kendrick is willing to go at anyone to prove he’s the best. Jackson calls it loud and ghetto because it’s not what America wants; the majority doesn’t want to hear rappers talk about their life experiences, the problems of this nation, or even just being competitive in hip hop. They seem to be repulsed by it as people on Fox News have already been called out by Kendrick for critiquing his song “Alright.”
During “HUMBLE,” male dancers are placed in a way where an American flag is formed with Kendrick in the middle, splitting it in half. This could represent two different things. The first is that Kendrick is in the middle of America being the talk of music now and you’re either on the side that likes him and what he stands for or you aren’t. The other meaning this could have is that our country is split between black people and America, and even though a lot of the U.S. was built off the backs of slaves, we’re still isolated and treated unfairly by it.
Next is “DNA,” a hardcore rap song about what’s in his DNA and why that’s what makes him the greatest. “Euphoria,” a diss song to Drake, plays as proof to this statement, in a way saying, “If you don’t believe me, then see what happened to the biggest rapper.” It’s also important to note that the stadium is giving out small messages.
At this time, the stadium says, “WARNING WRONG WAY.” This can be taken as saying, “If you try to battle Kendrick, you’re going the wrong way.” Or, this could be the stadium telling him these songs are the wrong choices for the halftime show because the majority of people don’t want to hear these types of songs. “Euphoria” ends and Kendrick moves on to rap an acapella doo wop version of “man at the garden” under a street light with backup singer who are sort of hugging the block around him.
Kendrick is showcasing the many musical talents that have come from African American culture, and doo wop is one of them. It’s a style of R&B where the background singers make melodic sounds such as “doo wop” to harmonize with little or no instrumental, as well as to complement the lead singer.
We approach another scolding from Uncle Sam who “deducts a life” as Kendrick and friends walk off. This could be interpreted as if you hug the block (selling illegal items on the street), especially with friends or are looking for trouble by not adhering to the laws (which would be like a cheat code in a game), it’ll definitely find you and will result in a life being “deducted” or lost. Just like in video games, if you don’t play right, you can lose a life. “Peekaboo” plays, and it gets interrupted by female dancers.
Kendrick has a conversation with them wanting to play “Not Like Us,” but noting that “they” like to sue. “They” is none other than Drake, so he’s once again taking hit after hit from Kendrick as he’s drawing a line, noting who the people of hip hop culture are and who isn’t. After this conversation, Kendrick finally gives Uncle Sam what he wants and plays “luther” and “All the Stars” with guest SZA. Both songs are very melodic with themes of love and respect. These the songs that America wants to hear in place of the hyped rap songs Kendrick makes.
Uncle Sam cheers and warns Kendrick to not mess up, but before he can finish, “Not Like Us” drops and Kendrick gives his 3 very important lines. “It’s a cultural divide, I’mma get it on the floor” notes a cultural division between 2 entities, and based on the next line, there’s only 2 groups it can be: Black people and the rest of the country. Kendrick is telling us he wants to put an end to this division and instead unite the country for peace, which has been the goal in his discography.
The next line, “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music.” This line is rooted deep in American history. It calls out a post-Civil War promise when the American government promised to reserve 400,000 acres of confederate land for newly freed slave families, and some were also granted military mules. When evenly distributed, each family would be granted 40 acres of land. After President Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson cancelled this order and gave back the land to confederates. While some families were able to keep some land, for the most part, the land that was reserved, as well as the land that newly freed slaves were already moved onto, was taken back.
Kendrick is telling us that our government as a whole will not stand up for black Americans, and they proved that from the broken promise of our reparations to now, where there’s less racism but microaggressions specifically regarding how our music is perceived by those that aren’t of hip hop culture. In the line, “Yeah, they tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence,” Kendrick is saying the music industry is trying to change what the best hip hop artist is by implementing people like Drake and others who don’t add to the culture. They use it for their own personal gain, instead letting the influence and impact some of the greatest rappers have on the audience show who’s actually a great artist.
“Not Like Us” follows, and then “tv off.” Kendrick once again disregards Uncle Sam, playing his hardcore rap while being confident and loud in his music. In the final seconds of the show, he smiles and makes a remote gesture while “turn his tv off” is being said as the show ends. This can be interpreted as Kendrick telling everyone to stop letting the media control you and start making a difference for the culture. If we want a change, we need to get up on our own and make it instead of allowing the rest of the country to decide what’s good for us to know. What I found funny was that not only did Kendrick break the record for the most viewed Super Bowl performance, after the show ended, the Super Bowl lost 1.3 million viewers.
Kendrick is one of the only people who would have the opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl and make a message out of it. I’m sure if more artists were to get even a little more conscious, and fans of hip hop were to raise their standards, we can see true hip hop become favored again. My love for hip hop and analyzation in anything is the reason why I chose to write about the half time show. If you’re interested in the analysis of hip hop, listen to Culture Shock, a radio show on which my co-host, Jayden Lawrence, and I speak on hip hop current events and albums. We air every week on Tuesdays from 8-10pm, so be sure to check us out!
