On September Eighth of 2024, Kendrick Lamar announced he would be performing at Super Bowl LIX, exciting the world after his #1 hit with his song “Not Like Us” earlier that summer. The year quickly passed by, and soon, the Super Bowl was only weeks away. Kendrick Lamar would do a pre-show interview for Apple Music, being interviewed by a large crowd, revealing he would have a “Large Surprise” for the Super Bowl performance. A couple days before the Super Bowl, Kendrick would surprisingly have another interview with Timothee Chalemet, with Kendrick talking about his reputation and the largest misconceptions about him. The night of the Super Bowl would arrive quickly, and after the second quarter ended, a quick ad break would take place, and eventually, Kendrick would be on the field.
The field’s design was one representing a Playstation controller, with a large square, triangle, x, and a circle. The show would go with a theme of a game taking place the whole time, though the full meaning would be revealed throughout the show. This show was riddled with deeper meanings and imagery, once again showing Kendricks planning and meaning of every thing he does.
The show would open with Samuel L Jackson saying he was our “Uncle Sam”, referring to the common personification of the United States. He would then state this was our “Great American Game”, seemingly referring to the Super Bowl. After a bunch of performers hopped out of Kendrick’s titular “gnx”, he would go on to perform an unreleased song, “Body on Body” and “squabble up” before being interrupted by Uncle Sam, yelling at Kendrick for being “Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” and saying “Do you really know how to play the game?”
After Uncle Sam finishes yelling at Kendrick, it quickly snaps back to Kendrick’s performance, performing “HUMBLE.”, splitting an American flag in half, metaphorically and literally dividing it. He then moved on to the song “DNA.” , which is a loud, proud song that bolsters and highlights the struggles that African-Americans go through, and one that spits in the face of his detractors. Kendrick then would move on to his song “Euphoria”, one of the most memorable songs from his beef with Drake.
From “Euphoria”, Kendrick moves on to a purely vocal version of “Man At The Garden”, a song where he talks about his rap career. He performs this song under the visual from the music video for “Alright”, a song that protested against police brutality, and the rest of the hardships that African-Americans face in the modern day. Kendrick is showing he hasn’t forgotten where he came from or what he was fighting for. Uncle Sam then pops up again, saying “Using the old culture cheat code? Score Keeper, deduct one life.” Kendrick then moves on to his song “Peekaboo”, with him inside of a large “X” that was on the field. Kendrick comes at us with a strong performance, with dancers behind him all in tune.
After Peekaboo, Kendrick moves on to “luther”, but not before teasing “Not Like Us”. After an amazing performance from both Kendrick and SZA, they then move on to one of their most popular songs together, “All Of The Stars”. The performance is great on all sides, with the lighting giving the perfect vibes, the dancers all in unison, and Kendrick and SZA’s perfect performances. After Kendrick is done performing his soft, safer songs Uncle Sam comes out pleased, saying “That’s what I’m talking about, that’s what America wants to see!” Before being interrupted by “Not Like Us”. The camera pans over to Kendrick, with the song stopping, and starting with Kendrick saying “40 acres and a mule this is bigger than the music”, clearly referring to the promises of reparations that were never met by the United States government. Whilst Kendrick is referring to this, he’s also showing people that this performance is so much more than just a performance, it’s a statement.
Kendrick, after saying what he wanted to, starts his largest song of this year, “Not Like Us”. The song, while mainly being about Drake, is also sort of anti-establishment. Kendrick makes his way through a yard, with everyone falling down except a small group of people. After Kendrick was done calling Drake a pedophile on the largest sporting event of the year, he would quickly move on to “tv off”, another song in the same essence of “Not Like Us”. He even brings out the producer of both songs, DJ Mustard. After going through the entire song, he gets to the ending chorus with Kendrick repeating “Turn this tv off” again and again before imitating clicking a remote with his hands, as “GAME OVER” is shown in the background.
The show was very successful, being the #1 Super Bowl halftime show off all time in terms of viewers. The show, although on the surface was very patriotic, was a halftime show that was meant to display Kendricks culture on the largest viewing stage in the world. The show felt like a “revolution”, as Kendrick proclaims himself multiple times. The super bowl is a large, expensive and commercial event, and Kendrick went against this, with a meaningful, deep show full of his culture.
The theme of the “Game” throughout the show was a perfect display of this, with Kendrick showing the world how African-American’s lives are, within the frame of a video game. Whenever Kendrick is proud of his culture, Uncle Sam pops up and “deducts one life” or gets angry. African-American deaths in the United States are at the highest rate, and Kendrick is showing the world how African-American lives are treated as if they are less. Kendrick, with his halftime performance wanted to show the world his culture and all the hardships that his race faces in America, and that, he did a perfect job at.
