Critic’s Notebook: In Sleek and Compelling Super Bowl Halftime Show, Kendrick Lamar Insists on Doing Things His Way
When Samuel L. Jackson walked onto the field to introduce Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show, he assumed the voice of a familiar icon: “Salutations, it’s your Uncle Sam,” the actor said, donning a blue top hat embellished with white stars, “and this is the great American game.”
Fans of Lamar will remember this character from To Pimp a Butterfly, where the wily figure encouraged the Compton rapper to feed a rapacious appetite for material goods. “What you want, you? / A house or a car? / Forty acres and a mule, a piano, a guitar?/ Anythin’, see, my name is Uncle Sam, I’m your dog,” intones Lamar in “Wesley’s Theory,” imbuing the character with a haunting voice, like the snake in the Garden of Eden. The rapper uses the specter to stage a battle between the American artist and capitalism, articulating the seductive and parasitic elements of that relationship.
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Lamar returned to this theme more directly Sunday night in his deft and compelling halftime show, the first time a rap artist headlined the event solo. Throughout the sleek affair, the rapper, facing even more commercial and critical pressure these days, insisted on doing things his own way. After winning a Pulitzer Prize, collecting almost two dozen Grammy Awards and publicly feuding with Drake, Lamar has ascended to a new level of stardom. The anticipation around tonight’s performance alone spawned reportage and op-eds wondering if Lamar would frame his time on the nation’s biggest stage around “Not Like Us,” the dis track heard around the world, or use the opportunity to showcase his biggest hits. Others considered the optics of the rapper, previously critical of the industry and inspired by Black revolutionary imagery, agreeing to perform for the organization that blacklisted Colin Kaepernick for protesting against police brutality. What would Lamar do, and what would it say about who he wanted to be?
The rapper’s performance vacillated between deference to and defiance of expectations. He recast Uncle Sam as a kind of gamemaster, there to measure the artist’s progress. When the figure, dressed in a custom Bode suit, welcomed audiences to the great American game, he was referring to both football and, well, celebrity. Lamar’s set included the triangle, square and circle symbols popularized by Squid Game. His dancers wore red, white and blue, and frequently got into formations that resembled the American flag.
Uncle Sam presided over the show, surveilling and policing Lamar. (It’s notable that Donald Trump, now serving his second term as U.S. president, was also in the audience.) After the rapper performed “Squabble Up,” supported by an impressive legion of dancers cloaked in crimson, Uncle Sam labeled the demonstration “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” before asking Lamar if “[he] really knows how to play the game?”
This question undergirded Lamar’s performance, reinforcing this push-and-pull between artistic integrity and commercial appeal. Many of Lamar’s most famous hits, from “Alright” (which the rapper performed when he appeared at the Super Bowl two years ago with Dr. Dre) to Good Kid, mA.A.d City hits like “Swimming Pools” or “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe,” were noticeably absent from tonight’s show, contrary to how most artists typically approach this stage. The rapper’s medley, instead, heavily featured tracks from GNX, including a rendition of “Man at the Garden,” a meditative bop that reads as morning affirmations, and “Luther,” a tender track buoyed by SZA’s honeyed vocals. (SZA performed alongside him, one of three surprise guests.)
When Lamar performed “Luther” and “All the Stars” with SZA, Sam returned to approve the duets. “America wants nice and calm,” the officiant said, and then warned Lamar not to ruin the good will. But even as the artist played the game, he showed that he prefers to put his own spin on it.
Throughout his performance, Lamar teased “Not Like Us,” his most popular track. At one point, as the opening chords played, the artist, sporting a diamond “A minor” chain, said to a dancer that he’d like to play their favorite song but knows “they” like to sue, referring to Drake’s defamation lawsuit against his and Lamar’s label UMG.
The threat of litigation didn’t scare the rapper, who eventually performed the hit song and brought out Serena Williams, another one of the evening’s guests. Lamar reveled in the performance, relishing the kind of nimble and humorous style of his early hits. Here, the rapper seemed unburdened by responsibility and eager to have fun mocking his archnemesis. There was a mischievous edge to it: At one point, Lamar, while invoking Drake’s name, smiled directly at the camera. Although this final number was meant to be subversive, evidence that Lamar will play this game his own way, it couldn’t help but feel, on this stage and in this year, like an act of placation.
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