A lot has been said about Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the Super Bowl just gone past and I am not here to litigate or parse any arguments about it; there are plenty of hot takes and takes of the hot takes for everyone to read. That’s not my intention here. But one thing I do want to address is the argument some have posited about the performance and its lack of entertainment. It’s a half time show, “show” being the operative word and we wanted to be entertained and for that I say, you could easily have switched off and go cut some grass for free entertainment because this was not the show for you.
Is the purpose of a half time show to be entertained at these things? Yes, it is, of course it is. The half time show has become the biggest draw on one of the biggest platforms watched globally not simply limited to the American audience. The NFL plays some off-season games at the in the UK which fans go and watch; it is slowly gaining momentum over here, so it is a universal stage upon which we all come to be entertained.
WERE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?
It would appear some of you were not and therein lies the, YOU, problem.
Sometimes there is a bigger message that ought to be conveyed on a grander stage and that stage comes no grander than the super bowl in the current climate. Yes, I have watched Not Like Us too many times to count, I am a Drake hater through and through I find him overrated and insignificant; a rapper ashamed of his own kin and is willing to have the worst seat on the cool table just so he can belong. His music pacifies them not electrifies and if you know, you know who them is. But back to the whole performance; Kendrick knew who was going to be in attendance, he knew the president of the united states was going to be in attendance and his opening line “you chose the right time but the wrong guy.”, couldn’t have been more direct to the nation. Mad times are upon us, we are in the midst of a coup for the soul of America thus the world, because what happens in America, like Vegas does not stay in America, it crosses the boarders of its vast nation and infiltrates everything and everyone with relationships to it, the whole world. It is to the world that Kendrick was directing his message; there is a regression of our principles, the same principles that ended slavery, the ended the Jim crow era, that gave women the right to vote, that gave maternity leave so women were not at risk of losing their jobs, that made homes affordable for our communities, the removed punishment from every little thing a person of colour did that the authorities deem unacceptable. The guaranteed our freedoms. Uncle Sam was there to police our behaviours and tell us how to act in order to fit in. Serena Williams was there to make you understand how caricatured she was at Wimbledon when she cripped walk post win, people thought it was mostly about Drake, it wasn’t and even though we all flipped at “Say Drake” because Kendrick was standing on message, the moment was bigger than the petty beef.
Kendrick knew that, why didn’t you?
His goal here was not to entertain, even though it was entertainment enough; it was to inform us and now our role is to decide what we are going to do with said information. If you have been asleep at the wheel that show sought to wake you up and smack sense into you; the country you love, the people you love, the life you love… are being eroded by people who have no business being in power, people who would rather we went back to being 3/5ths of persons in the constitution. It is a bigger cause than entertainment because it is in keeping you sweet that they slowly yet surely drive the knife into your throat and watch life sip out of you for their own entertainment. You are not children always in need of sweets to pacify you, those sweets will kill you. Fix up and look sharp.
What is that saying our parents have; “a word is enough for the wise”.
Kendrick gave us a word whilst dressed in flares that were beneath his trainers, if this wasn’t our uniform in the early OOs. Leave the shucking and jiving for another super bowl; we have had plenty over the years.