The Superbowl Halftime Show is always a coveted performance slot that sometimes does not get the respect it deserves. People complained about a pregnant Rihanna not moving enough, people complained about Beyoncé being too Black and this year, racist white America complained about Kendrick Lamar’s performance, yet they lack the sentience and verbiage to delineate any complaints that don’t have a racist dog whistle blaring in the background.
I can’t get over how out of touch the NFL is with its fans. The whole country is trending more conservative and traditional while the NFL has Kendrick Lamar as the halftime show, doubled down on DEI policies, and played commercials about girls being better at football than boys.…
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) February 10, 2025
Many people complained about it being divisive or that it did not cater to the ‘real NFL fans.’ Somehow, a man who has won 22 Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize is not someone that people listen to.
The problem is that racist white America thinks they can cherry-pick the Black experience.
Imagine positing that the “Record of the Year” winner is somehow not in wide enough circulation simply because the song has not hit your ears. It is one thing to not like the song or the artist, which people are rightfully entitled to not do, but to posit that he is undeserving of an opportunity simply because Jimothy from Sioux Falls does not know who is— is positing whiteness and the white experience as the default, especially when half of the players in the NFL are Black!
Racist white America thinks that if it does not own or is able to dissect something, or if something is not tailored to its specific desires, then it is not worthy of recognition or acclaim.
Some Black audiences were upset because he did not focus enough on racism (remember, other people thought it was divisive) but focused too much on Drake. As if Samuel L. Jackson being the metaphorical Uncle Sam, including instructing Kendrick not to be “too ghetto,” was not a blatant enough message about racism, especially when one takes into consideration the absolutely aghast audience he left in his wake after his 2016 Grammy performance. Being upset that Drake is the focus of a diss song about Drake is such a crazy reach that any yogi would be highly impressed.
In what world would he not have performed his biggest hit, which won him Song and Record of the Year, as well as three other Grammys, just a week earlier?!?!
Bringing Serena Williams out to crip walk was a fantastic coup de grâce, not only because she was lambasted for doing that very thing after her Wimbledon win, but because Drake can’t seem to stop mentioning her in songs, even after she’s been married with children for years.
Alright here's Kendrick Lamar's full half time show performance. Share until Drake sees it!#SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/XoyNralqbX
— Derlis A. González | Composer (@DerlisAGonzalez) February 10, 2025
Kendrick’s performance was too divisive; we live in a world where the person with the knife gets to complain about the cut.
It is an artist’s responsibility to use that blood in his quill. Kendrick’s performance highlighted the ills of America, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson’s Uncle Tom/Sam, as well as the ills of an artist who forgot that he could take shots but is still not bulletproof. There is no occasion when everyone is going to love the artist that performs at the Super Bowl—well, maybe other than Michael Jackson—but to deride an artist for bringing the ills of the world, including his, to the forefront is not indicative of someone who knows how art works.
You are not required to like every single thing presented to you because not everyone is thinking of you during their creative process. It is a much-entitled thing to think that you are entitled to everything.
