Of course, he performed “Don’t Like Us”.
Leading by Kendrick Lamar’s headline performance in the Super Bowl midfield halftime show Sunday night, the focus of most chats is whether he will play the song, which was last year Effective knockout strike in months-long battles with Drake. The song became Lamar’s iconic hit and a generational national anthem. Just a week ago, he won the Record of the Year and Song of the Year song at the Grammy Awards. The song seems to permanently recalibrate hip-hop’s power rankings.
Yes, Lamar played the song. Of course, at the end of the scene, a few short musical nods are amassing expectations to attract the audience’s emotions and desires.
But from this performance, it is always remembered not the musical choices made by Lamar, nor the aesthetics of his choreography or the silhouettes of his costume. When he finally started raping that song, what was left was his smile. It is broad, durable, almost cartoonish. A man’s lifelong smile comes at the expense of his enemies.
Lamar is perhaps the most sober of all hip-hop contemporary greats, a fierce storyteller who values debate and introspection in tongue travel. He is not a beacon of joy. During the beef, he seemed necessary to do the homework Drake.
However, “Don’t Like Us” is an outbreak of champagne cork. On the Super Bowl stage of Caesar Super Stage in New Orleans, it was hinted, packed, and then initiated in Lamar’s idiom: “They tried to drill the game, but you can’t pretend to affect.”
Then, that smile. What a smile. His subsequent performance was very joyful and a little naughty. As he said, “Say, Drake, I heard you like ’em Young,” he gestured down with his left hand, as if he had patted the child on the head, and he looked at the camera hard. He named Drake’s colleagues and their flaws. Given the song’s debate on Drake (it calls him a “certified pedophile”), among other things, it’s almost certainly a decision on the performance. (Drake sued two rappers behind The record label to release and promote the track. ) makes concessions: Lamar (just as he lands on the doomsday of singing, “A Minorrrrrrrrr.”
It’s a wonder–perhaps the peak of any rap war. This hasn’t even calculated the brief moment of the great tennis (and the rumored former Drake Parker), where Serena Williams is on stage, walking with the Glee.
Given that most of Lamar’s scenes are conceptually boiled down to the issue of “not like us”, he mostly maintained a strange level for the rest of the time. Instead of packing every hit song of his, like “OK” or “bits, don’t kill my vibe”, he relies on the song from his recent LP, “GNX”: “The Man in the Garden, “Peekaboo,” at the beginning of the scene, he used as an unreleased track for the album promotion.
Sza comes out to perform their two duets: “Luther” and “All Stars” – but they feel they are undercooked, almost non-ideological. They can see them as comments about artists, especially black artists, especially rappers – and more comments have to be made historically to ensure wider taste and acceptance. (The halftime show has the first hip-hop headline in 2022.)
Lamar himself emphasized this, including a single Greek chorus: Samuel L.
After two SZA songs, Jackson said, “That’s what America wants – good, calm. You’re almost here – don’t mess it up…” Lamar was then interrupted by “Don’t Like Us.”
Here is another winning stroke for Lamar here: weaving the meta-exaggeration of the evening’s performance into the show itself. Should he perform a song full of allegations to become the subject of defamation lawsuits? Can a black performer perform in the Super Bowl halftime show, the NFL’s crown jewel, the agency takes up additional politics after the Black Lives Matter movement and Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest value?
After the “quarrel”, Jackson suddenly showed up Lamar’s performance: “Too big, too lustful, too poor – Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game?” This is both a ridicule and a comic . Lamar is therefore followed by “moodiness” during which his dancers (wearing red, white and blue sportswear) form the formation of the American flag.
Lamar warned at the top of the suit, “Revolution’ is to be televised – you chose the right time, but the wrong person.” But broadly speaking, despite Lamar nodding to these bigger struggles , but he limited his passion primarily to the most personal struggle. This is one of the biggest stages of music, freeing Vendetta.
At least one person had different ideas about how to use the performance to advance the agenda. At the end of the scene, he pulls out a banner that combines the flags of Palestine and Sudan, featuring hearts and fists. This is part of the show, and another level of comments weaving into the show that already contains it?
In the footage captured from the stadium, but without broadcast, the main stage was hunted just seconds after the flag was whipped. He ran around the court, then was fixed by the security guard in the suit and took the field away. At least that revolution will not be broadcast on TV.
