Kendrick Lamar's Controversial Halftime Show Explained

I'll be honest: I'm not someone who really enjoys live concerts much. I don't get excited by touring musicians playing songs I've already heard, and I usually actively tune out the pomp and circumstance of the Super Bowl halftime show. So imagine the shock I felt as I tell you that Kendrick Lamar's performance brought me an exhilaration that I haven't felt for a live performance since Prince's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitar solo. It wasn't just a much-needed shot in the arm in the middle of a dreadfully boring game, it was an intricately detailed work of performance art that spoke directly to so many different strands of American history, through both Lamar's lyrics and the visuals on display.

Samuel L. Jackson Sets Up Kendrick's Subversive Performance

It's best to start with the most prominent element in Lamar's performance that you don't typically see in other halftime shows: a proper emcee, courtesy of Samuel L. Jackson as "Uncle Sam." He boldly proclaims Kung Fu Kenny's true ambitions by framing his act as "the great American game," which at first seems like a shoutout to football's cultural position as the dominant sport in America. But if you notice that the stage is decorated with huge platforms in the shape of the PlayStation logo symbols, it injects a level of sarcasm into the proceedings, implying that everything they're doing demands being played like characters in the game of surviving in America. Plus, Jackson is someone with a long history of public resistance to the American government, like how he engaged in activist protests in his college days or how he was once deeply involved with the Black Power movement before he was an actor. Furthermore, him being used as a brash emcee who speaks about the truths people don't want to see recalls his iconic role in Do the Right Thing, screaming at everyone to wake up and learn to live together. When Jackson breaks up Lamar's songs by asking if he knows how to play the game and later praising him for playing his more "nice" and "calm" songs, he's twisting Lamar's biggest display of mainstream success into a sharp stance against the culturally enforced divisions that American structures implement for capitalist and ideological gain.

The Use of Red, White, and Blue Has Multiple Meanings

The emphasis on unity overpowering division bleeds into the costuming of Lamar's fellow performers. Everybody involved, including the dancers, is wearing a predominant color of red, white, or blue, usually coordinated in ways that carry a hidden association. Lamar is decked out in all blue, evoking his allegiance to the West Coast, while Jackson is in a suit that's modeled after the infamous Uncle Sam recruitment poster. Even the guest appearances of SZA, Serena Williams, and DJ Mustard show them adorning these colors, with SZA in red while Williams and Mustard wear blue. At first, it's an obvious reference to the colors of the American flag, made more apparent by how the dancers orient themselves to form the actual shapes of the American flag. But on another level, the colors represent the Bloods and the Crips, two prominent rival gangs in Los Angeles whom Lamar brought together in the public eye at his The Pop Out concert last summer. If that wasn't clear enough, Williams does a Crip walk during her appearance, the dance affiliated with the Crips that she has previously received racist criticism for doing after winning tennis matches. So, not only is the color coordination intentional, it supercharges Lamar's overarching message about taking victory laps on a path towards unity in the face of an unjust society.

Kendrick Lamar Made a True and Clear Statement

I haven't even addressed his song selections yet, and yet those serve as a final cherry on top of Lamar's self-critical serving of entertainment. Most of his performance was spent giving us myriad hits from his career, but he did so with a relish for how much he was owning the moment. He mercilessly teased us with "Not Like Us" twice before finally playing it and made sure to smile right at the camera when calling out Drake, which is nothing less than the height of pettiness. I salute Lamar for that. But that somehow wasn't the most audacious aspect of his performance.

That occurred when he capped the performance with the song "tv off" from his new album GNX, following with the sign "GAME OVER" in big lights throughout the seating section as the arena plunged into darkness. His final message to millions of Americans was one advocating them to unplug from the corporate media machine and get together to organize against the powers that be. Knowing that he did so with our current President in attendance, on national television, at the biggest sporting event in the country, this final gut punch feels like nothing less than the clarion call that's needed for the American people to come together to push for the better future we all believe is possible. Or it could be just one final nail in the coffin of the credibility October's Very Own, thanks to a LEGO man with a kung fu kick that should never again be underestimated.