Kendrick Lamar is a 37-year-old American rapper from Compton, California. Recently, Kendrick Lamar has gained even more fame because of the “beef” between him and Drake. His diss track song “Not Like Us” received a total of 823.5 million streams.
Kendrick was warned by Drake and his team not to sing the diss track, as it accuses Drake of some heinous things, yet he still did it!
Kendrick has a unique music style that includes storytelling and Black History in the U.S. Lamar’s style was presented compellingly during this year’s Super Bowl. With lots of symbolism throughout, Lamar wanted to get a message across.
While watching, I didn’t exactly pick up on the constant symbolism that Kendrick Lamar was trying to portray. However, with 12 million streams of the performance already, many people have deciphered what kind of hidden messages were included in this performance.
At the start of Kendrick’s performance, we see an appearance from actor Samuel Jackson. Jackson is meant to be “Uncle Tom” a term we get from the classic novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. At one point during the performance, the actor accused Lamar of being “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” voicing stereotypes often associated with Black Americans and hip-hop music.
Another symbol was the American flag. Lamar’s backup dancers were dressed in red, white, and blue. At one point during the lineup, the dancers all bent forward, lifting their backs in the air. Many on social media theorized the move was meant to indicate how America was built on the backs of Black Americans during slavery. Shortly after, the dancers separated, standing in two groups on either side of Lamar. The image of the divided flag seemed to speak to political divisions around the nation, to which Lamar alludes with the line, “It’s a cultural divide.”
Speaking of Drake disses, Lamar brought Serena Williams to dance alongside them, who is a previous ex-girlfriend of the Canadian rapper.
One last hidden message was when Lamar turns to his singers and says, “40 acres and mule, this is bigger than the music.” The 40 acres and mule were reparations promised to Black Americans following the end of slavery.
This performance was, in fact, bigger than the music, and I respect Kendrick Lamar for using his platform to speak up about stigma and issues around the world. Plus, most of his songs are 10/10.
