© Photography by Chris Graythen, Christopher Polk, Chandan Khanna
If you’re not in tune with major sports, February 9th saw the 59th annual Super Bowl finals to crown the champions of America’s National Football League between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, who were looking to do the seemingly impossible by going for the first ever Super Bowl three peat, having won Super Bowl 57 and 58 the previous 2 years. While the Chiefs hopes of immortality were cut off by the Eagles who won 40-22, as per usual, it was the traditional half time show musical performance that’s been the talk of the town and beyond.
After one of the greatest years of any artist in modern times, hip hop megastar Kendrick Lamar was given the opportunity to be the headline act, the first time a solo hip hop artist has ever done the halftime show, with support from Sza, who is soon going on tour with Kendrick as part of Kendrick’s Grand National tour across the world. This was Kendrick’s 2nd time overall doing the show after being part of Dr. Dre’s hip hop hall of fame line-up in 2022 alongside the aforementioned doctor, Eminem, 50 Cent and Mary J Blige among others. When asked on social media what fans could expect for the show, Kendrick responded with one simple word: Storytelling, and K Dot very much delivered on his promise.
The show began with the first of many cameos from Uncle Sam, the infamous figure of American propaganda played by esteemed actor Samuel L. Jackson. He started the show by welcoming everyone to ‘The Great American Game’ which many believe to be a summarisation of the capitalistic ways of America, where many see life as a game to get to ‘the top’. Kendrick then took over with the start of his performance. He started with a performance of the snippet from his gnx teaser that introduced the dancers, all clad in red, white and blue which ended with Kendrick saying ‘The revolution is televised; you picked the right time but the wrong guy’ which many believe to be a diss towards current US President Donald Trump, who was in attendance. The first part (a performance of his track squabble up) ended with Uncle Sam lambasting him for being ‘too ghetto’ and to ‘tighten up’, representing the treatment of black culture and presentation from white Americans.
The dancers then formed around Kendrick in a lineup that made the stars & stripes of the USA flag as Kendrick performed his once viral 2017 track Humble. During the song, the dancers split in half to draw a line down the flag, which many saw as a representation of the current climate and division across America in several fields, with many also pointing out the fact that all of the dancers being black might be a nod to America being built on the hard work and labour of black people. From there, Kendrick would perform his tracks DNA, Euphoria and man at the garden before Uncle Sam ran Kendrick and his backup dancers away, calling them a ‘culture cheat code’, another reference to white American people’s treatment of black culture. Sam would finish this section by looking down the camera and saying ‘Scorekeeper, deduct one life’, a possible reference to police brutality suffered at the hands of black people in America.
Kendrick would then perform peekaboo before teasing a performance of his beloved track Not Like Us, before deciding not to do it yet and instead introduce Sza to the proceedings with performances of their recent collaborative track luther, as well as their track that featured in 2018’s Black Panther, All the Stars. Uncle Sam would show up once more to say ‘That’s what America wants! Nice and calm!’ before being cut off by the beat to Not Like Us and an introduction to the song from Kendrick saying:
‘It’s a cultural divide, Imma get it on the floor, 40 acres on the mule, this is bigger than the music, Yeah they try to rig the game but you can’t fake influence, Ayo I’m tripping, I’m slatting, I’m riding through the bank like BOP!’ before going into the song, which included an incredibly cheeky smile right down the camera when mentioning fellow musician Drake after their beef through the spring of last year as well as a cameo from tennis legend and ex-partner of Drake’s, Serena Williams who was seen ‘crip walking’ to the song. Kendrick wrapped up his performance with his recent viral track tv off, with a cameo from famed DJ Mustard on beat with the iconic ‘MUSTAAAAARD!’ scream from that song, and the performance ended with the lights cutting out and ‘GAME OVER’ being made with lights in the crowd. The 2nd and 3rd bars of the introduction are thought to be references to broken promises made after the American Civil War, and the 3rd bar being about American's capitalistic foundation and how the system keeps black people down.
The performance has re-ignited conversation about race relations and the political climate in America, with many commending Kendrick for using the show to raise problems about America’s current issues with subtleties throughout the performance, while others decried it for being ‘boring’, particularly for the lack of production value that previous halftime performances from the likes of Dr. Dre, Maroon 5 and Katy Perry among others have had. The performance was laden with references and subtle nods anywhere you looked, with Kendrick living up to his promise of ‘storytelling’ being the prominent throughline of the performance.
At one point during the performance of tv off, a dancer could just about be seen on top of a car in the backdrop holding up the flags of Sudan and Palestine, showing support after years of violence at the hands of a civil war and Israeli settlers respectively. The protester was then chased away by security. He has since been identified as Zul-Qamain Nantambu, who has since been released with no charges.
If you wish to view the full performance, it’s available on Youtube here: Kendrick Lamar's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show
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