Televising the Revolution: Kendrick’s Messaging Four Months Later
“Salutations…this is the great American game!” exclaims an eager Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam in a star-spangled top hat and suit.
Image description: Samuel L. Jackson in a red, white, and blue suit, facing the camera, with his hands out.
The stage lights illuminate a platform resembling a video game controller, where a crouched Kendrick Lamar begins his performance for the 2025 NFL Super Bowl, hosted in New Orleans. Lamar’s first song on his setlist included lyrics from the trailer for his new album, GNX, as well as additional unreleased lines, including “You would not get the picture if I had to sit you for hours in front of the Louvre.” This line arguably foreshadowed the immediate responses after his performance, with critics claiming that his performance was the “worst halftime show ever,” but also references his extremely controversial and media-censored 2016 Grammys performance that has been almost completely wiped from the internet (including the Grammys website, where it was available for a week after the SuperBowl performance).
Image Description: Kendrick Lamar crouched on a car as the spotlight hits him from above.
Dozens of dancers dressed head to toe in red, white, and blue begin pouring out of the Buick GNX Kendrick is crouched on right before he transitioned into “squabble up,” a song directly from his newest album, with the statement “The revolution ‘bout to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy,” as a reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 song about Black liberation titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” With these words, Lamar, a poet and a visionary, continues to deliver a heavily politicized and calculated half-time show with the thirteen minutes of air time he is allotted.
Image Description: Around two dozen figures wearing either all white, all blue, or all red dancing on steps and a platform as Kendrick Lamar stands on a car while rapping
During “squabble up,” Black dancers wearing only red or white appear on the screen for the audience, something that quickly caught my attention as the colors of the American flag have very specific meanings: red correlates with valor, and white correlates with innocence. The untelevised blue is defined as “vigilance, preservation, and justice” by the United States Government, but I interpreted this specific scene as Lamar showing to the American public that there is no justice in our current political system. The dancers in red are all women (exemplifying the bravery and valor Black women have in their day-to-day lives to navigate both the systems of racial capitalism and the patriarchy out of survival), whereas the dancers in white are all men (exemplifying the disproportionate criminalization of Black men).
At the nearly 3-minute mark for the performance, all dancers begin marching on stage as Lamar is actively stating “squabble up” as female dancers in red hold their fists up to their faces (the best comparison I can make to this is Ken from Street Fighter’s default pose) and the male dancers in blue and white begin stomping up the stage, militaristically in rank and file.
The camera then pans to a frustrated Uncle Sam, the embodiment of white America, exclaiming, “No, no, no, no, no! Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto! Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!” Viewer commentary mentioned that this is symbolism for both the non-Black and Black communities, with a TikTok posted by user @kioncore captioned: “mothers telling their daughters wearing a bonnet outside is wrong and ghetto, the black men that view nonblack women as ‘better’ than black women bc they’re ‘not ratchet’ or loud. don’t loc your hair cause they don’t see you as presentable. be palatable. your name is too hard to say, what abt a nickname instead? black kids from the other neighborhood being told they talk ‘stupid’ or weird. your natural hair is perfect, but only in a certain ‘calmer style,’ no afros or colors here! to name some examples (both within and outside of the community).” As a non-Black person, I cannot comment on the Black experience, but can attest that the argument of inner community policing and hate is present in my immigrant Muslim household/community (e.g., ridiculous standards mothers have for eldest daughters vs their sons, misogyny, etc). The “game” Uncle Sam refers to here is the navigation of the empire of the United States, with racial capitalism, the patriarchy, and white supremacy being the game masters and Black Americans being the characters, reflected by Kendrick’s set.
The camera immediately pans to Lamar in between his dancer’s formation of the US flag while the beginning of “HUMBLE,” from his 2017 album DAMN, starts playing. The male dancers’ makeup in this set alludes to America being built on the labor of Black men (many of whom remain statistically disenfranchised today), and nodding their heads “yes” as they stand to form the flag exemplifies how the State relies on their disenfranchisement to thrive, abiding by the foundation Uncle Sam laid out. A song with a title that explicitly displays the meaning of the lyrics, viewers commented that this song was a direct call-out against President Donald J. Trump, who was in attendance at the Super Bowl and reportedly impacted the NFL removing the words “stop racism” from football field end zones for the first time since 2021 due to his anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) efforts.
Image Description: 60 dancers in rows of 6 and columns of 2, wearing alternating red, white, and blue colors positioned like the American flag as Kendrick, in a blue jacket and blue jeans, stands in between the two columns
Kendrick transitions into quick snippets of popular and political pieces of his discography. He moves into “D.N.A.” off of DAMN, with lyrics that tell the story of his African lineage: “I got loyalty inside my DNA…Power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA.” And then later transitions from “D.N.A.” to “euphoria,” his first solo release since his 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, as a speculated response to one of many diss-tracks Drake has released (fan behavior much?). K Dot then moves into “man at the garden,” another song off of GNX, with lyrics like “I deserve it all because it’s mine,” “Burn this thing down, don’t you play with me,” and “Flip a coin, you want the dangerous me or the famous me?” positioning both his feud with Drake and his identity as a Black man in the United States.
Uncle Sam appears on the screen and says, “Ah, see you brought your homeboys with you. The old culture cheat code. Scorekeeper, deduct one life.” Uncle Sam’s wording exemplifies how Black men are infantilized/paternalized in the ways non-Black communities are not in the face of fascism and the colonial apparatus. Kendrick’s “homeboys” were seen in typical L.A. street fashion of baggy jeans and baggy shirts, posted up next to a street lamp as Kendrick rapped. This connects to Uncle Sam’s “deduct one life” because they ran in the other direction as he approached, symbolizing the disposability of Black men by the State through policing (a system that originally began as slave patrols prior to the end of the Civil War). In regards to the “old culture cheat code,” Uncle Sam, the physical embodiment of the imperial United States, critiques Kendrick using Black culture and his Angeleno identity as a tool to navigate success and lay his creative foundation because white America can’t claim Black culture without commodifying it. The language Uncle Sam used can also be seen in media today in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or affirmative action, with narratives equating opportunities created to promote equity for Black/BIPOC communities to “handouts.”
Image Description: Kendrick Lamar rapping passionately into the microphone as figures in white tee shirts and blue jeans run out of the frame
Transitioning into “peekaboo,” also off of GNX. Lamar draws attention to his chain with the line “Peekaboo, I just put them boogers in my chain,” urging the audience to look at the lowercase “a” on his neck–most likely referring to Drake’s history with underage girls.
As the Gemini that he is, Kendrick gives the audience an entertaining transition into “luther” (also on GNX) by teasing “Not Like Us,” his multiple Grammy award-winning diss track to Drake, by stating “I want to perform they favorite song, but you know they love to sue” and playing the beginning of the song as a reference to Drake’s lawsuit against Kendrick. I found the transition especially creative because Lamar introduces his performance with S.Z.A., an artist who has a shared romantic history with Drake when she was a teenager, as a diss on both his and her behalf.
S.Z.A. then appears on stage, wearing all red, as she sings her verses on “luther” and “All The Stars,” a song on the Black Panther soundtrack that adds onto Kendrick’s “Black Power” theme throughout his performance. “All The Stars” in itself has outwardly politically charged lyrics that, to me, feel like a direct attack on the Trump administration and complicit America: “You can bring a bullet, bring a morgue, bring a sword/But you can’t bring truth to me” (referencing the violence Black Americans have endured historically and continue to face in moments of repression), “I recognize your false confidence/Promises all in your conversation/I hate those that feel entitled” (directed towards the failures of American democracy and empty promises of justice and equality), and “Corrupt a man’s heart with a gift/That’s how you find out who you dealin’ with” (angled at the impact capital has on humanity).
Image Description: SZA wearing red while sitting on the floor singing as fem figures in blue dance on the floor with her
The camera then pans to Uncle Sam exclaiming “Yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s what America wants, nice and calm. You’re almost there. Don’t mess this–Ah” before he’s cut off by the beginning of “Not Like Us” and Kendrick rapping “It’s a cultural divide, I’ma get it on the floor/Forty acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music/Yeah, they tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence” with a mischievous smile (so Gemini). Kendrick subverts the demand for respectability politics that Uncle Sam is ordering by refusing to “play the game” and, instead, is demanding the failed promise of “40 acres and a mule,” originally made to freed enslaved people after the Civil War. He then directly drops Drake’s name, with the same mischievous grin, as he and the entire audience exclaim, “a minor.”
At 10:40, the audience gets a bird’s eye view of all of the dancers collapsing in a chalk outline formation. This is a glimpse (legit a glimpse since the camera only covers one second of this) into the reality of Black communities that are overpoliced and criminalized–their lives are disposable in the eyes of the State. The only dancers that aren’t on the floor are those wearing white, which can allude to the proximity to whiteness (with whiteness=power) to survive and sustain oneself.
Image Description: Red, white, and blue figures laying on the stage from an aerial view
The audience’s attention was passed off to Serena Williams, who had one of the night’s most meaningful, metaphorical performances. The 3-second camera pan to Williams crip-walking on a platform, wearing a tennis skirt. Internet commentary speculated that K Dot put Williams on stage due to her history with Drake—a history consisting of him being publicly and blatantly misogynistic toward her—but her performance was more than her alleged relationship with Drake. Williams performed the dance after her win after her gold medal win in the Olympics in 2012 and faced tremendous amounts of backlash, with Fox Sports’ Jason Whitlock stating: “What Serena did was akin to cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church. What she did was immature and classless.” Throughout her career, Serena Williams has had to endure both anti-Black and misogynist rhetoric, more so known as misogynoir. Aside from having every aspect of her identity picked apart by the media, including what she wears (even if it is for medical reasons), Williams has also been subjected to the most drug testing out of any player not previously charged with doping.
Image Description: Serena Williams, in blue, looking directly into the camera as she dances, with red, white, and blue figures in the background
Arguably, the most radical part of his performance was in fact not televised. Zül-Qarnain Nantambu, New Orleans-based creative and performer in the show, stood on top of the GNX with the Palestinian and Sudan flags.“I wanted to show the solidarity to those afflicted by this and their families and loved ones that they’re being remembered here in America” states Nantambu in an interview with Al-Jareeza when discussing how his actions were fueled by his role as a practicing Muslim and the teaching of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to take direct action for justice. While Nantambu’s action in itself wasn’t televised, bystanders took the liberty of recording and posting his bravery on the internet immediately and tying the struggles of the Global South and Black Americans together. Nantambu risked his career and now has a lifetime ban from the NFL, for the people in Palestine and Sudan under occupation.
Image Description: figures wearing all black dancing, one figure standing on top of a car holding a Sudan and Palestinian flag with the words “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on it in black ink
While Kendrick’s performance had mixed reviews for many different reasons, something I’ve seen online by many leftists is critique of the concept of his performance being “revolutionary.” One TikTok even stated that his performance “proves that capitalism is strong enough to ingest critiques of itself and continue on because it’s not actually being threatened” and that “many celebrities are tools of political theatre,” referring to the show calling out different aspects of contemporary American society but still having to be approved before being performed in front of a live audience. TikTok user Grace Fell exclaimed in a deleted video “Yeah you’re from Compton, what have you done for Compton? Can I have receipts? If Kendrick Lamar is some secret mutual aider, I will shut the fuck up right now” in response to the artist’s performance, but was quickly humbled as creators stitched her video with the receipts she asked for. Marie, the responder, states, “Kendrick Lamar is not some ‘secret mutual aider,’ he’s a very well-known philanthropist when it comes to Compton and different community organizations. Across his entire career, Kendrick has not only donated his money, but his time, his effort, and his love to Compton,” and proceeded to mention how Lamar donated $200k to various L.A. based organizations that help. Lamar has also invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in after school, sports, and music programs within his city, on top of continuously repping it in songs like “ELEMENT” off of his album DAMN.: “I don’t do it for the Gram I do it for Compton.”
It’s important to hold ourselves accountable in times where fascism is on the rise, but it is beyond foolish and irresponsible to put the weight of our liberation on social or political actors–especially without doing a personal assessment on your own personal contributions, or lack thereof, to the movement. The advocacy space relies on the emotional labor of Black and brown communities, and as Toni Morrison puts it, “It’s important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being.” The research has been done on the conditions of the dispossessed, and policing the forms of resistance and protest we utilize only hinders the movement–which is what the State wants. Kendrick Lamar is a protest artist, a poet, and a visionary. His performances are meant to stir up conversations like these and have us take positionality and be uncomfortable in our complicity, on whatever varying level or degree it’s in. We need to lean on community during a time when the media, and even our own government, isn’t keeping us safe—which is why we need to “turn this T.V. off.”
