Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance, The Symbolisms Within It And Why Televising The “Revolution” Won’t Actually Start One

Sometimes The Smartest People In The Room Aren’t As Smart As They Think They Are

It’s funny how people are using Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance to act like they’re the smartest people in the room. Talking about who “didn’t get it” or how “it went over people’s head” is a bit goofy and it’s not the flex they may think it is. It’s good if a rapper has the ability to educate their audience, but truly educated people don’t need or depend on rappers to educate them. Being enlightened is great, but some of us have been on that path to enlightenment for years, even decades.

There was a time in hip hop when Kendrick’s pro black message was more widely accepted. Just check out the late 80’s/early 90’s era of hip hop. It was cool to have a message back then, until things changed as time went on. For the sake of time and not being too lengthy, I won’t get into the commercialization of hip hop and the specifics of hip hop’s downfall due to said commercialization. We can get into that another time.

If people enjoyed Kendrick’s halftime performance and were enlightened by it, that’s fine, but just because some of us weren’t totally enamored by the performance, it doesn’t mean we “don’t get it.” Let’s be real, some of us “got it” before you got it. We’ve been about the message before it was cool to be about the message. We’ve been about the message before the term “woke” was popularized and back when people kept telling us “it’s not that deep.” Let’s not act like shooting the messenger wasn’t a thing (and still is a thing) when it’s too disruptive to having fun to simple raps and catchy hooks or the status quo in general. Let’s not play ourselves as if people haven’t been suggesting that the more complex rappers out there should “dumb it down” in order to succeed.

Some of these same people’s social media accounts are rampant with nothing but low-brow content… basically a bunch of ratchet ghetto nonsense, including but not limited to, fight videos, stupid gender war skits, silly celebrity gossip, unfounded rumors, memes littered with information devoid of being fact-checked, etc. All of a sudden Kendrick Lamar puts out cerebral music (something he’s been doing for awhile now) and people feel like by listening to him, they’ve somehow got an inside track on some arcane information or they’re somehow ahead of the curve. The irony of people saying that Kendrick wasn’t at the Super Bowl just to entertain is that that is exactly what he was there for. If we look at the definition of entertainment in its’ simplest form, that’s exactly what he did.

The NFL Lost Black Viewership And Got It Back Through Token Negroism

Now let’s rewind the clocks shall we. Back in 2016 during NFL Preseason Colin Kaepernick starting protesting against police brutality/racial injustice. He started by sitting and then kneeling during the National Anthem.

The NFL lost millions of viewers. Yes, millions. A good percentage of people stopped watching football and the Kaepernick-led protests against racial injustice was to blame. A lot of the people who stopped watching football were black people.

Enter Jay-Z. Later in 2019, Jay-Z and the NFL formed a partnership. Jay-Z and Roc Nation are in charge of the live music entertainment i.e. Super Bowl Halftime shows. The partnership also includes Jay-Z and Roc Nation to assist the NFL with “social justice reform initiatives.”

Why bring all of this up?? I bring this up because clearly Jay-Z was used by the NFL in order to get viewership back up. Black viewership for the most part. There were people who mentioned how Jay-Z partnering with the NFL was a “chess move,” but really it was the NFL that executed a chess move by bringing on Jay-Z. With Jay-Z in the fold, this brings back that lost black viewership.

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance And The Key Symbolic Moments With His Performance

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance is what everyone is currently going ablaze about online. Aside from that, we’re hearing about all of the symbolism in Kendrick’s performance. Let’s get into some of the symbolism real quick…

• Samuel L. Jackson is playing Uncle Sam. Back in 2012 Samuel L. Jackson played a house slave named “Stephen” in the movie, Django Unchained. Stephen being fiercely loyal to his slave master did his job as the house slave, which was to keep all of the field slaves in line. Black Uncle Sam represents a modern day house negro… an affluent black person who is tasked by his white pay masters to keep the rank-and-file black people (typically not as affluent/wealthy) in line.

• “Uncle Same” introduces “The Great American Game.” A double-entendre for football and the game of life. The Sony Playstation symbols are shown and those same symbols represent the symbols used in the Netflix show, Squid Game. The Squid Game was a competition in which regular everyday people had to risk their lives competing against one another in deadly versions of children’s games. They were competing for a large cash prize. Basically it symbolizes capitalism, wealth inequality and how the wealthy manipulate the lower class of people into competing against one another in order to attain financial success. The people fighting at the bottom is a source of entertainment for the people at the top.

• Kendrick says “the revolution is about to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy.” “The revolution is about to be televised…” is a nod to Gil Scott-Heron’s classic poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

• Uncle Sam says the performance of the song “Squabble Up” is “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.” Uncle Sam asks if Kendrick “really knows how to play the game.” He’s referring to the game of life in America and how black people need to “tighten up” in order to play the game appropriately. Uncle Sam being the house negro that he is, is enforcing respectability politics on black people and trying to get black people to tow the line by being compliant and complicit in allowing corporate entities to profit off of the blood, sweat and tears of Black American culture.

• Kendrick is in the middle of his dancers who are in two groups and are on opposite sides of each other. This represents a divide in America. The dancers are in red, white and blue and they are in the formation as the American flag. This represents that black people built America. America was built on the backs of black people. The dancers are nodding their head which means although they are divided, they are still in compliance with what America wants and expects of them as “good obedient slaves.”

• Kendrick and his dancers are on a prison yard and the lights in the background say “WARNING: WRONG WAY.” This is a way to communicate the need for redirection for black people in America. A redirection from the things that can get them dead or in prison and moving towards a way of doing things that will help them live a better life.

• There are street lights that are shown. Those same street lights have people laying on top of them. Street lights represent the inner city. Kids are told to come home when the street lights come on. One of the reasons is to avoid the dangers of the inner city life. A group of black people together could be considered the “culture cheat code.” Racial profiling occurs as well and knowing this as well as the dangers of living in the hood, Uncle Sam asks the scorekeeper to “deduct one life.”

• Kendrick teases the audience with a snippet of “Not Like Us” and switches to a performance with SZA. Things go from masculine energy to feminine energy as a way to dissipate any possible tension of the environment. Uncle Sam says “that’s what America wants; nice and calm.” America wants their black people to be “nice and calm.” In other words, stay in your place and don’t be disruptive to the status quo.

• Kendrick interrupts Uncle Sam as he’s saying “you’re almost there, don’t mess this up.” “You’re almost there, don’t mess this up” means you’re almost successful according to white American standards. In other words, you can be a black face in a high place, if you just don’t mess things up. Kendrick uses the intro to “Not Like Us” as the interruption. Kendrick’s interruption shows that he doesn’t need America’s approval to advocate for “40 acres and a mule” hence the “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music” part. America wants black people to just be compliant and entertain the masses, but Kendrick is not here to just simply entertain.

• Kendrick performs part of “Not Like Us” as a way of bucking at the system. The system is Drake. Drake has threatened to sue UMG (Universal Music Group), Kendrick Lamar’s record label. “Not Like Us” is the source of the lawsuit. By Kendrick performing the song at the Super Bowl, that was his way of sticking his finger up to “the system.”

• Black women are the most disrespected women in America. Kendrick having Serena Williams as a guest on his stage is a sign of him protecting the black woman. Serena Williams crip walking was a shot at her ex-boyfriend Drake as well as a nod to the time when she crip walked at the Olympics (2012 Wimbledon match) after beating Maria Sharapova. While white society thought Serena crip walking was “immature and classless,” black society embraced Serena for dancing. She was embraced for being happy and in the moment.

• The conclusion of the performance is GAME OVER. TV OFF. In other words turn the TV off and get out there and change things. Revolutions don’t happen while you’re at home watching TV.

Kendrick Lamar performing at the Super Bowl was yet another NFL chess move. As much as it is cool to hear about a “revolution,” the reality is, none is happening. Black people have been back to watching football after the whole Colin Kaepernick situation. The NFL simply co-opted a black power moment and allowed it to be on the world stage as a way to not only keep people talking about the Super Bowl halftime show, but to keep black people invested in watching football.

The Reality Of Performative Pro Black Vs. The Reality Of Black People In America

Whoever is saying that Kendrick’s performance wasn’t for white people’s consumption may be right, however, even though white people might not have liked what they watched, the fact is, there position in society isn’t changing. It’s certainly not changing for the betterment of black people. The racial wealth gap is still a thing and the gap has been widening when it comes to Black and White households. In this current day and age, black people are still killed by police at a higher rate than any other group. Almost a decade after Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality, police brutality against blacks is still a societal problem.

How ironic that an organization that kicked a black man out for protesting against racial injustice towards blacks is now an organization that allows black empowerment on one of the biggest stages in the world. Pro blackness on a national stage was simply allowed to take place. It was allowed for a reason. “The white man” knows about black people’s constant need to feel empowered. They know about black people’s constant need to be seen and heard by the dominant white society. All the NFL needed was the help of a black billionaire by the name of Shawn Carter. A black man who made it and could be used as the NFL’s token negro and symbol for the black person who is recognized by the dominant white society. Now go a few years back and say goodbye to the very short-lived “NFL Boycott,” if you haven’t already. Whether it’s the National Football League or any other major American institution, the powers that be know how to co-opt a resistance movement and make it “theirs.” A resistance can be watered down if it’s allowed to be talked about in the open, but on acceptable terms within a limited scope.

At this point and time, Kendrick Lamar’s net worth is around 140 million, so he’s good and well-off after his performances. Most black people are not worth as much as Kendrick Lamar; not even close. So with all of that in mind, what exactly is going to change in the real world where most people are barely making ends meet? How are the conditions of black people in America going to change for the better? What actual revolution is going to occur? We can talk about an artist’s performance all day and dissect the symbolism within the performances for days, but after the dopamine rush is over, then what? These are just some questions one must ask themselves after all of the hype dies down. Kendrick Lamar is at a stage (no pun intended) in his life where he can make statements like “this is bigger than the music.” Real change will take place when black people collectively mobilize in a way that shows that their needs are in fact bigger than the music.