Halfway through an immensely underwhelming 59th Super Bowl, an event almost as highly anticipated as the game itself — both to music fans and those apathetic to the outcome of the Chiefs and Eagles matchup — commenced.
Kendrick Lamar took the stage fresh off his whirlwind year that started with the most explosive rap beef since the 90s and closed with the sudden release of his album GNX.
The Super Bowl halftime show consistently sets high expectations. Legendary performances are hailed for years while disappointments are ridiculed tirelessly.
It’s truly a nightmare venue. The arena is too big for the audience to feel any intimacy with the performer and the audio is difficult to understand through television sets across the country. The songs are cut down to fit into the demanding time slot and the required censorship often kills rap performers’ carefully crafted flows.
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The show often feels empty. It can’t quite embody the feel of a concert because it isn’t — it’s a glorified intermission that never pleases. Even when the performance is lauded as a success, it’s never good enough for the millions watching.
But Lamar didn’t seem to mind whether or not people liked his performance — he conveyed a deeper significance. Opening with Samuel L. Jackson as “Uncle Sam” in a nod to Lamar’s 2015 opus To Pimp a Butterfly, the rapper made it clear that he understood what the performance was supposed to be about and he didn’t care.
He goes back-and-forth with Jackson’s embodiment of the acceptable American mainstream — playing along and toning down at times to play hits like “Humble” and “All the Stars,” as palatable choices approved by Jackon’s character.
But it felt inevitable that Lamar would subvert this. No one would expect him to be happy just playing the hits, keeping Uncle Sam happy — he’s never been about that. Instead, he gave the country what it wanted, tongue-in-cheek, for a just bit.
He could’ve ended it there with the hits. “That’s what America wants, nice and calm,” said Uncle Sam, but his words got lost in the unmistakable intro to Not Like Us, finally playing in full after being teased throughout the show several times.
Lamar seemed giddy, smiling at the camera throughout. But it was about much more than the year-long beef with Drake, which he made clear into the microphone as the song started.
“Forty acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music,” he rapped in reference to the unfulfilled promise made to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War — another callback to the To Pimp a Butterfly era where he repeatedly uses the reference in his lyrics.
Although “Not Like Us” appeared to be the crowd favorite, it was always bigger than Drake and Kendrick. It was about the culture that Lamar brought on stage at the Super Bowl. It was a celebration of how far Lamar and other rappers have come.
It seemed the most important thing was not what songs he played, but bringing his conscious lyricism and a cultural moment to the biggest stage in the world. Lamar’s performance remained unapologetic, which was the only outcome that made sense for a rapper who constantly reinvents the game at every level.
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Outside musical elements, the visuals and choreography hinted at both unity and polarization. The dancers wore red, white and blue while tearing themselves apart and putting themselves together. At certain points, the performers formed the American flag or symbolized Lamar’s goal of uniting Los Angeles gangs on a single stage, as he verbalizes in “reincarnated” from his latest album: “I put one hundred hoods on one stage.”
A celebration was in order. Lamar welcomed the hatred and spite and spun it around in a way only he could. Halfway through the “Great American Game,” as christened by Jackson’s Uncle Sam, Lamar made a statement.
From his roots in Compton to the Super Bowl, he brought a cultural movement with him that recognizes itself as an unapologetic force. Once again, it was bigger than the music.
