The viewers got here for blood, however Kendrick Lamar made them wait. Together with his Tremendous Bowl LIX halftime efficiency, Kendrick reminded everybody that, regardless of over 50 years of hip-hop historical past, rap nonetheless struggles for widespread recognition as a legit artwork type. And an vital a part of the style is competitors. His halftime present embraced that motif, framing America, soccer, the Tremendous Bowl, and himself as elements of a bigger machine. The primary face on display screen? Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, the present’s narrator and scorekeeper, who declared, “This is the nice American recreation.” Hip-hop is a quintessential All-American sport, too.
Photograph by Emilee Chinn/Getty Pictures
Kendrick opened the efficiency atop a black Buick Grand Nationwide Experimental—the namesake of his 2024 album—carrying flare denims, locked right into a Gremlin stance, and spitting verses mainstream viewers most likely couldn’t even Shazam earlier than launching into GNX’s “Squabble Up.” He closed with a diss observe that had the Caesars Superdome singing alongside to his pettiest traces, as Serena Williams delivered what needed to be the Tremendous Bowl’s first-ever on-field revenge-Crip Stroll. The diss file symbolizes utter domination in hip-hop. And so goes America and soccer. However what do rap and soccer imply to Kendrick? Drama, sport, spectacle.
Hip-hop has asserted its dominance on the Tremendous Bowl stage since Jay-Z and Roc Nation started dealing with manufacturing with the 2020 present. Final evening, Kendrick stood alone as the primary solo rap headliner, much less as a crucial darling and extra as a standing image of hip-hop’s ascent. Only a week in the past, he received 5 Grammys, together with Track and Report of the 12 months for “Not Like Us,” cementing the Drake diss observe as a cultural fixture—one thing all of us already knew. However final evening’s halftime present painted Drake as a dispensable henchman and America as the final word adversary. His high-octane GNX tracks made his set really feel extra up to date and fewer like a legacy efficiency, à la Usher or Rihanna’s latest outings. The present was wealthy with subtext and loosely political—Kendrick’s reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” firstly; Jackson’s taunt, “Mr. Lamar, do you actually know tips on how to play the sport?” For “Humble.,” Kendrick and his dancers fashioned an American flag with their our bodies. Looking for which means in Kendrick’s imagery can really feel vexing when the which means is extra symbolic than overt. Possibly it’s about dominance in any respect prices. Possibly it’s all only a sick recreation the place probably the most Kendrick might do was push the envelope so far as the NFL and the televised broadcast system would permit.
Kendrick additionally appeared to make use of his Tremendous Bowl platform to attempt to dismantle stereotypes about rap (that it’s not a critical style) and himself (that he wasn’t worthy of a halftime set). The present contrasted sharply along with his extra plainly defiant Pop Out live performance, the place he carried out “Not Like Us” 5 occasions straight, reveling in all issues group and California. Right here, he toyed with expectations: He ceded the stage to SZA, resplendent in purple, to sing GNX’s saccharine ballad “Luther” and the Black Panther hit “All of the Stars.” Strains like “I hate people who really feel entitled” hit just a little extra menacingly beneath the Tremendous Bowl lights.
