I wanted to examine the wealth of symbolism present in Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance. Specifically I wanted to highlight the duality in the symbols he uses and the multiple meanings one can draw from them. I also, wanted to note how symbols can change based on context.
Also, I do not wish to present these observations as the be all end all. I’m sure I missed many things even with multiple viewings.
The show opens with what looks like a tic tac toe board (but I later found out was referencing a playstation controller) Either way the idea is the same, this is a game. This game reference will be appear numerous times throughout the performance.
Samuel L. Jackson appears dressed as Uncle Sam. This is an obvious reference to the American Icon Uncle Sam.
It could also be a play on Uncle Tom which is a term within the African American community used to revile and slur other blacks who are seen as overly subservient. The term comes from the Harriet Beecher Stow novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. And also remember, Sam Jackson played an Uncle Tom type character in the movie Django Unchained.
Sam says, “Welcome to the Great American Game”. Now he could be talking about football or he could be talking about the game of race and racism in America. It’s telling that the NFL decided to stop showing the term “end racism” to bookend the field shortly after Trump entered office. The NFL often employs virtue signaling to show that they are allies in the fight against racism, but blacklisted Colin Kaepernick after he refused to stop kneeling during the national anthem. This is the game that Sam’s character (or more specifically Kendrick) is referring to.
Kendrick opens his performance with a verse that bears deeper analyzing, but early on he refers to the fact that he and his pen are, “20 years in. Still got that pen dedicated to bare hard truths.” And so this performance will do just that.
While he spits his opening verse, numerous dancers dressed in red, white and blue jump out of the car he is perched on.
This parodies perhaps the well known scene of numerous clowns squeezing out a clown car? As we note they are dressed in the colors of the American flag, could he be commenting on American’s or American politics?
Speaking to the duality of symbols, clowns are also akin to jesters and jesters have long been the only one that can make fun of the king. Perhaps these clowns/jesters will be making fun of Trump?
He ends this opening verse with the line, “The revolution about to be televised, you picked the right time, but the wrong guy.”
This verse is a nod to the famous Gil Scot Heron song, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” In that song Heron, among other things, says that we will not see the revolution on tv because the media controls what we see. This song was an anthem of sorts imploring black people to look deeper into culture and past mass media and find the true happenings of the world around them.
Here Kendrick states perhaps that he will lead a revolution through his performance.
What does the “right time, but the wrong guy mean?”
It could be a jab to the media and the NFL that they picked a black man to once again virtue signal, but that he will not be an Uncle Tom. He will not play along.
Kendrick then moves into the second song from his most recent album GNX, “Squabble Up”.
Shortly after his verse, Sam Jackson as Uncle Sam is back again. He chastises Kendrick for being, “Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto”.
One should note that blacks are often derided for being too loud. And that “ghetto” is a phase used to refer to something as being cheap or poor or that someone is poor acting.
He then asks Kendrick, “do you really know how to play the game?” Here again Kendrick is playing with dueling symbols, the game of football of course, but more specifically he is referring to the game that even wealthy and famous black people must play. That white society still expects blacks to toe the line and be respectful.
Sam then tells him to “Tighten up” or in other words, he better act right.
The next fame is kendrick standing between his dancers who have formed an American Flag. It should be noted that the American flag is split in half with Kendrick in the middle. This symbol could speak to the many divisions within American politics and American society. A note here again, on the duality of symbols. Depending on your worldview, Kendrick’s place in the middle could be seen as a bridge between the two or the divider of the two sides.
Then we hear a trilling sound like machine gun fire and the dancers flee the stage.
Kendrick then switches verses to his song DNA. It’s interesting that this trilling sound intros this song about what is in his DNA as Kendrick has talked much about the violence he experienced growing up. It’s as if this violence is in his DNA, but yet he fights against it. This song talks much about these dualities that Kendrick has noted within himself, and to a larger extent the dualities that exist within the African American diaspora, “got royalty inside my DNA. Coke and quarter piece, put the war and peace inside my DNA. Power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA. That's hustle, though, ambition flow inside my DNA”.
All this while he walks alone down what is made to look like a city street at night complete with streetlights. Far behind him his dancers continue their moves. Here Kendrick perhaps wants to highlight how he alone is the best rapper or that he walks a path few others can tread. He will shortly segue to the song Euphoria where the line, “Yeah, I’m out the way, I’m low okay” referring how he prefers to lead a private life. This is then followed by the line, “Yeah, the island right here’s remote, okay.” He’s so great that he is on an island all to his own.
Kendrick then joins his dancers on the other end of the stage and segues to the song Euphoria. A key line here was originally directed at Drake, but for this performance could be seen as directed towards Trump. “Oh, you thought the money, the power or fame would make you?”
It is most likely not since Trump’s appearance was not really expected, but we must realize that symbols can change meaning based on context.
It’s important to note that Kendrick is talented enough and smart enough to deal with ideas and symbols that are widely understood and use them to illustrate stories that are not only pertinent to him, but that are also pertinent to others. The idea of what extreme wealth can do to people are prominent now more than ever and this line points that out.
From here Kendrick moves to the song Man at the Garden. The camera shifts and then lowers to a streetlight where Kendrick stands with his dancers who are all dressed in white. A boom boom vocal beat begins.
This scene recalls a sort of barber shop quartet. An activity that was was fairly common in both black and white neighborhoods across America back in the day.The line, “flip a coin, you want the famous me or the dangerous me.” Could recall how easily black people are stereotyped as being violent when they are just living.
This could also speak to the media and how they interpret and portray blacks in tv, and movies and various other media, especially the news. On one side of the coin you could have Morgan Freeman as the Magical Negro stereotype. On the other side you could have Ice Cube or Kendrick Lamar as the dangerous violent Negro. Whatever the side, the media refuses to see blacks as fully formed people, they are just stereotypes. He ends this verse with the line, “how annoying.”
Shortly after this Uncle Sam returns and he says to Kendrick and the audience, “(Give a helping hand) Ah, see you brought your homeboys with you. The old culture cheat code (To your fellow man)”
(The bolded words in parenthesis are the verses of the song that play between Sam talking)
Who are his homeboys? His dancers, his friends that help him make his music, or those that will help him engage in revolution?
Uncle Sam ends his brief monologue with the line, “Scorekeeper, deduct one life.” Perhaps alluding to the fact that revolutionary black men and women are often killed.
This line swing us into the song Peekaboo. The verse opens with this line quickly repeated, “What they talkin' 'bout? They ain't talkin' 'bout nothin’”
Is this line again directed towards the media who won’t report the real news, who won’t televise the revolution?”
Or is about the clowns again, the media, the political pundits, the keyboard warriors, all the people that talk, but say nothing.
Note here that the dancers are formed into the shape of an “X”.
Perhaps this is referring to how black people are X’ed out by violence, by the laws of the United States, by the media and ultimately by history. Or could it be them rallying around the words of Malcolm X?
Kendrick then joins a quartet of women, again all dressed in white. He teases the song, “Not Like Us”, but leaves us hanging.
Kendrick is briefly admonished as Uncle (Tom’s) Sam’s voice streams over the speakers, “Aw, you done lost your damn mind”. Black people can’t ever step out of line, or else.
Kendrick then walks the stage alone as the he beings the song “Luther”. The camera swirls to one of his frequent collaborators, SZA. The next few verses Kendrick and SZA sing of a better world for themselves, but also for black people and even perhaps all people,
“So, in this world, concrete flowers grow
Heartache, she only doin' what she know
Weekends, get it poppin' on the low
Better days comin' for sure
If this world were—
If it was up to me
I wouldn't give these nobodies no sympathy
I'd take away the pain, I'd give you everything
I just wanna see you win, wanna see (If this world were mine)”
Then we move to “All the Stars” from the Black Panter soundtrack. It opens with this line, “Tell me what you gon' do to me
Confrontation ain't nothin' new to me
You can bring a bullet, bring a morgue, bring a sword
But you can't bring the truth to me.”
All this while his dancers, dressed in red, white and blue, march with their hands out in a stop or a I don’t want to hear it gesture. Also, of note is that the dancers are lit in a way that they look as if they are only dressed in black or white
Does this speak to all the political rhetoric from both sides nowadays? Does it point out that despite all of this we still can’t find the truth?
Could these color and lighting choices speak to the fact that, although the dancers dressed in red, white and blue, but lit to look as if they’re dressed in black and white, represent a breakdown in communication. I believe this points to the idea that all we American’s see are black and white. Not just in color, but also in political and moral issues. And that the dancers, with their hands raised, symbolize how we no longer will listen to any opposing arguments? The symbolism here is super multi layered.
Again more duality here in that the lyrics speak to all the violence perpetrated against black people that is done under the guise of law and order, but is more about “teaching them a lesson” or teaching them how to “act right”, and in truth is done because of racism. There is not real truth here, just hate, but truth is what Kendrick wants the most.
Wait, there’s more,
“I recognize your false confidence, promises
All in your conversation
I hate those that feel entitled
Look at me crazy 'cause I ain't invite you
Oh, you important? You the moral to the story? You endorsin'?
I don't even like you
Corrupt a man's heart with a gift”
Again more lines that could describe Trump and his minions, but also both sides of this long running argument. In truth, both sides trade in racism and for the most part, are out for themselves. It’s important to note that many feel neither Republicans nor Democrats are really working to change the system, but instead work to keep it running and thus keep anyone from rising above their station. In effect they keep racism and classism (and many more isms) alive and even widen it as we see with the wealth gap.
Shortly after we see Uncle Sam again. “Yeah that’s what I’m talking about, that’s what America wants, nice and calm.”
In other words, America want’s its black people “civilized”.
Sam is interrupted by Kendrick who is accompanied by the opening beats of “Not Like Us”, where he says, “Oh no, it’s a cultural divide, I’ma get it on the floor”. Followed by the broken promise America gave to the blacks at the end of the Civil War, “40 acres and mule.” Then he says, “this is bigger than the game, yeah, they tried to rig the game, but you can't fake influence” pointing out how powerful Kendrick and by extension, black culture has become. This is not simply a game anymore. This is life or death. This is culture.
And here, finally, Kendrick finally gives the crowd what they want. “Not Like Us”.
I’d like to note here that the dis track aimed at Drake carries much more meaning than just Kendrick hating on Drake. I think Kendrick dislikes Drake because he sees him and his music as sanitizing rap (and by extension black culture). Drake could be moving black culture forward, but instead he makes disposable songs that only make him money and do nothing for others. Drake claims he is the greatest, but in Kendrick’s world view greatness comes not from writing forgettable pop songs, but from making memorable longstanding art, making poignant messages and shining a light on real life issues. Drake does none of that and and wastes his status and power thereby making a mockery of black music and black culture. He is in essence being an Uncle Tom.
So, the song “Not Like Us” is Kendrick pointing a finger at Drake and in effect saying, “he’s not like us. He is fake. We are the real thing. We are the truth.”
And here we see Kendrick rejoined by his dancers. We see now that they are lit in a way where we can see their red, white and blue colors once again as they unify around him.
A quick cut to Serena Williams crip walking as a callback to when she was vilified by the media for crip walking after winning Wimbledon. Here she gets to do it on the biggest stage in the world. How you like me now!
We near the end of Kendrick’s performance where we segue to another track from GNX, “tv off”.
As Kendrick extolls us all to “turn his tv off” we come full circle to the opening lines of this performance where we heard that the revolution will not be televised. Once again, Kendrick could be seen as more specifically, talking about Trump and his followers who are known for going down rabbit holes as they watch hours and hours of FOX news. This could, in truth be anyone who is too lazy to seek out the truth.
The performance ends with a short burst of white noise before cutting to silence. The tv is off, now go live your life.