Kendrick Lamar capped off the greatest year a rapper has had in quite some time with a Super Bowl halftime show designed specifically to piss off Drake, his fans, and Fox News conservatives alike. A week after winning five Grammys for "Not Like Us," it was pretty obvious that the smash hit was going to make an appearance, despite Drake's dogged attempts to sue damn near the entire music industry over the song. And Kendrick clearly had fun with that fact, repeatedly teasing the record at various points during the show until eventually performing it. At the song's telling moment, with a mischievous grin, Kendrick called out Drake right to camera before deftly declining to say the word "pedophile" on national TV.
"Not Like Us" quickly transcended its original context within the beef, and has since become an anthem like The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" or The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." It helps that its message is easily refashioned into a generalizable sentiment: THEY are not like US, whoever "they" or "us" might be. Kendrick himself has encouraged this broadening of the song's scope. "Not like us is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent," he said in an interview with SZA in Harper's Bazaar. "This man has morals, he has values, he believes in something, he stands on something. He’s not pandering. If I’m thinking of 'Not Like Us,' I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that." Sure. Fine. But there is a context to it, and a fallout from it, and Kendrick brought it all up there with him on the Super Bowl stage.
The visual motif of the halftime show could best be described as Kendrick Lamar's Americana meets the PlayStation home screen. Incidentally, the Super Bowl performance it most reminded me of was The Weeknd's (a thing I still can't believe happened). Kendrick traipsed around his elaborate stage, performing records mostly from his most recent album GNX. SZA was there for a couple songs, which was a good look for her and good advertising for the pair's upcoming tour. He had Samuel L. Jackson (too much Samuel L. Jackson) playing Uncle Sam as the master of ceremonies, demanding that Kendrick put on a great show for the country, "but don't step on any toes or offend the nation." That's what we in the biz call "subversive art."
I like Kendrick. I respect how earnest he is and how much he cares about rap music and his own artistry. But if there is one thing that keeps me from loving him, it is his penchant for wanting things both ways. He clearly loves the success and stardom he has achieved, particularly this year, and yet he cannot get over his ever-present anxiety about selling out, even as he gleefully continues to sell out. I don't think selling out necessarily has to be seen as a bad thing, especially when you've done it on your own terms. But so much of the show, from the Uncle Sam bit to the attempts to reclaim or subvert traditional American iconography, felt like an attempt to let everyone know that Kendrick is aware of how big this is while also trying to hold onto some perceived authenticity that, at this level, just doesn't matter anymore. It is ironic, then, that the most challenging statement of the show didn't belong to Kendrick at all.
But that's just me. Some things are just cringeworthy; it ain't even gotta be deep, I guess. Still, I did find it interesting that Kendrick mostly performed songs from his latest album, which itself, even outside of the fact that I didn't love it, felt like an attempt to out-Drake Drake. The teasing of "Not Like Us," the eventual performance of it, the predominance of GNX songs—maybe it shouldn't have been, but it was a little surprising just how prominent Drake's presence felt.
There's no question that crushing Drake in the beef has brought Kendrick's career to all new heights. But it's a little curious that Kendrick is still expending so much energy towards a fight he's long since won. The Super Bowl halftime is the biggest stage there is. People all over the world are watching this and will relive it for a long time. Granted, it is funny watching Serena Williams crip walk, as is the thought of having to explain to your older family members 10 years of rap beef and dating history so they get the context of all of it. But I just feel like, dude, this is YOUR moment. You already had the beat-up-Drake victory concert. Why make so much of your big moment about the other guy? But again, maybe I'm just not hating strongly enough.
