(February 10, 2025). Where is Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction when you need it?
Kendrick Lamar has now headlined or co-headlined two Super Bowl halftime shows in just four years, first joining the hip-hop tribute at SB LVI in 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige.
While a few artists have returned for multiple Super Bowls, no one has ever headlined twice. The chances of K.Dot getting a third shot? Slim to none.
He planned accordingly.
The most celebrated rapper of a generation — and arguably of all time when all is said and done — used this platform as if it were his last, delivering some subtle and not-so-subtle messages about America and racism at a time when America wanted to hear it least but needed it most. For some, the messages were clear… for others, it needed to be translated. And still others wanted no parts of it. They want patriotism to be on their terms. But that’s the beauty of this country… it takes all kinds, right?
“The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy,” Kendrick declared at the start. He may have been half-right. In Jay-Z’s NFL era, the league seemingly picked the right time and the right guy, cementing the Super Bowl stage as a platform for social messaging.
To wit, every halftime show since 2020 has been headlined by a person of color, bookended currently by two performances that were full of messages about the state of cultural affairs in this country. First, in 2020, there was the Jennifer Lopez/Shakira show highlighting what Latino people have brought to this country both culturally and economically. It was as much a celebration of the two artists’ Colombian (Shakira) and Puerto Rican (J-Lo) heritages as it was entertaining. It came at a time when that community was under fire by then-president Donald Trump whose stances on the nation’s southern border and on Puerto Rico (“one of the most corrupt places on earth,” he once tweeted) were well-documented.
And then there was Kendrick’s show on Sunday (Feb. 9). Who better to deliver hard-hitting messages about Black folks’ plight in America in 2025 than King Kenny, the Pulitzer Prize-winning rhyme spitter from Compton, Ca, whose SB victory lap couldn’t have been more earned or timely. Could Lil Wayne, the hometown NOLA superstar who very publicly broke down when Kendrick was selected, have pulled this off? Kendrick’s show was a 13-minute Black history lesson during Black History Month, even if it wasn’t the all-too familiar and, frankly, whitewashed tributes to the MLKs and Rosa Parks of our past. It was far more cutting than that, slicing unapologetically into the history we’re creating now and, in the process, delivering messages that went right over many people’s heads, including many of our own.
For instance, this year’s BHM theme — African Americans and Labor — was aptly depicted by dozens of Black men draped in red, white and blue outfits, representing our American flag with their backs bent forward while Kendrick rapped his No. 1 hit “HUMBLE.” Not only was it a reminder that this country was built on the backs of Black people, both in the form of slave labor and in a system that, to this day, pays Blacks far less than their equally skilled counterparts, but that the very NFL game we’d been entertained by was owned by a league where more than half of the players are Black. That “labor,” btw, generates more than $300B dollars in revenue annually for the league, one that just removed the “End Racism” slogan from its end-zones for the first time in the post-George Floyd era.
There are two NFL realities today: First, 53% of players — its “field workers” — are Black, a fact Jay-Z likely emphasizes to the league and the networks every year when securing halftime acts. Second, the league knows Jay’s musical picks have delivered record-breaking TV ratings, making it hard for the NFL to find fault or cut ties.
Another reality is that, like it or not, we’ve moved past kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest. That gesture is too simple and performative (plus we see where that got Colin Kaepernick). In this era of “piss-off” politics, where, sadly, it’s more important to anger our political opponents than it is to raise awareness that affects change, Jay-Z has found a way to leverage pop culture in ways that kneeling couldn’t accomplish. It also cleverly takes the burden away from players and places it squarely on the league, a league that, btw, plays both sides of this coin — see the “end racism” slogan comment above — but one that knows how its bread is being buttered nonetheless.
Kendrick delivered.
Viewers more knowledgeable in K.Dot than this blogger might argue that every song Kendrick performed Sunday night contained some sort of messaging, intended or not. Even his most recent No. 1 hit, last November’s “Squabble Up,” which includes the prominent refrain, “When I hear music, it makes me dance” (from Debbie Deb’s 1984 underground club anthem), morphed from the half-party/half-cultural anthem it was intended to be into a statement about how Blacks are “good” as long as we’re dancing and entertaining, and not paying attention to what’s happening around us.
His popular ballad “Luther,” a duet with R&B superstar SZA which was inspired by the 1982 Luther Vandross/Cheryl Lynn single “If This World Were Mine,” may have been envisioned as a romantic ode to both hip-hop and a romantic interest. But, on Sunday, it doubled as a statement that, with SZA’s guest appearance, our women didn’t need to be reduced to being ratchet p*ssy-poppers – as nearly every female rapper being promoted by U.S. record labels is — and could, in a different world, be valued and honored for their inherent, natural beauty.
And then there were references to the “Squid Game,” the Netflix series about a deadly game of hierarchy where those with money and power have leverage over those without. Even the main stage, at times mimicking a Squid Game card, doubled as a prison yard where its occupants were controlled to remain imprisoned and dancing, all for the benefit of the billionaires pulling their strings.
Could there have been a better time than now to hear and see this, with the world’s richest man – Elon Musk – serving as fellow billionaire President Trump’s Slasher-in-Chief and shutting down government agencies without congressional approval, and without so much as an efficiency review to determine where government waste should rightfully be cut? It’s worth noting that Musk’s moves could disproportionately affect Black workers. They make up nearly 20% of all federal government employees, while representing only 12% of the U.S. population. With Democrats, Congress or the Supreme Court seemingly powerless to stop him, doesn’t it seem like Musk – and by extension, Trump — is treating the Constitution like a doctrine whose time has passed?
With DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs simultaneously being slashed left and right, under the guise that they represent forms of reverse discrimination when nothing could be further from the truth, Kendrick was speaking for a demographic far greater than himself or hip-hop. That “47” himself may or may not have been there to witness it – rumor has it that he left either at halftime or in the third quarter after it became apparent that his preferred team, the Kansas City Chiefs, were not going to win – was incidental, not because he didn’t need to hear them, but because Kendrick’s messages likely would have flown right over his head regardless.
But a celebrity who was there was former tennis superstar Serena Williams, Drake’s former flame whose allegiance to Kendrick and Compton was on full display while she “Crypt-walked” to the award-winning No. 1 diss anthem everyone anticipated, “Not Like Us.” Serena’s presence may have been the night’s most petty moment, causing star-focused viewers to dismiss the entire show as a Drake-focused redemption when it was far from that.
Indeed “Not Like Us” had its own victory lap last week when it won five Grammys – the most for a single song in the Awards’ history – including for both Record and Song of the Year. It was only the second time that a rap song had won those two awards, with the first also coming during a Trump presidency, Childish Gambino’s (aka Donald Glover’s) 2018 protest anthem “This is America.”
That those two songs are historically linked isn’t surprising. Both may ultimately go down in history as being among the most powerful social anthems of a generation. Of course, Glover’s tune was a more direct indictment of a country where Blacks disproportionately are victims of violence. Kendrick’s may have started as a diss against his Canadian nemesis but ultimately may be seen as its own social statement.
Years from now, when crowds chant the refrain “they not like us, they not like us,” will the “they” really just be one person? That might not have even been the case Sunday night.
The Grammys were the song’s victory lap. The Super Bowl was Kendrick’s. That millions of detractors are calling it the “worst halftime show ever” because they weren’t “entertained” or because they didn’t understand the messages means K.Dot understood the assignment.
He may never be invited to perform at another Super Bowl Halftime Show, but he made the most of his moment. It was patriotism on his terms, and he once again reawakened a huge audience with messages that needed to be delivered.
Whether they were received or not is a different story.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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