No matter what team you were rooting for on Sunday, you watched the Halftime show and you might have questions on the symbolism and context of Kendrick Lamar’s performance. With under 15 minutes, he packed the performance with things you might’ve missed.
The American Flag
Let’s start with the most obvious thing which was the dancers coming together to form an image of the American Flag. That could mean two things. One way you could see it is Kendrick saying that the United States was built on the backs of Black people. Another way you can picture it is that him standing between the dancers symbolizes the racial and political divide we are facing at the moment.
“You Know They Love to Sue”
There are many ways that Kendrick made fun of Drake and hinted to his beef with him. One of those was when he played the intro for “Not Like Us” and paused and said “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” Lamar said. This is because Drake filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group due to their promotion of Lamar’s song.
A Minor
Another thing Kendrick did to reference the song “Not Like Us” is wear a lowercase “a” on his neck which could refer to the lyric “trying to strike a chord and it’s probably a minor” which is a double entendre to suggest that Drake likes to pursue young girls. He also had one of his dancers wave a flag of kids reaching up to a lowercase “a” to represent that same lyric.
Uncle Sam
Something you might’ve been confused about is when Samuel L. Jackson came out dressed in the familiar ensemble of Uncle Sam. According to The Root Jackson is thought to represent “mainstream “white” friendly America”. He calls the performance “too loud, too unruly, too ghetto.” before Kendrick keeps on going with his next song “Humble”.
“40 Acres and a Mule”
During his performance Lamar raps “40 acres and mule, this is bigger than the music.” to his backup dancers. This refers to the wartime order proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman where formerly enslaved Black people were promised this as a form of restitution. This was meant to help distribute confederate land for Black people to start living independent lives. Though this promise was not fulfilled because after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination Andrew Jackson revoked Field Order 15.
SZA and Serena
As you know Sza performed but someone else who was on that stage was Serena Williams doing the Crip Walk. Sza has frequently collaborated with Kendrick and is going on tour with him for his new album “GNX” soon, so it wasn’t a surprise that she came out to perform with him. Serena on the other hand was, for a second you can see her dancing along to the music. Both women have had a past romance with Drake and are now his exes. Sza dated him briefly in 2009. This wasn’t revealed until a decade later. Serena dated Drake on and off from 2011 to 2015. They are not on good terms since Drake called her husband Reddit’s founder, a “groupie” in his song “Middle of the Ocean”. Kendrick defended Serena in his song “Not Like Us” rapping about the areas in Los Angeles that they’re from “From Alondra down to Central … better not speak on Serena.”
Video Game Shapes
Surrounding the main stage Kendrick had four more stages in shapes that look to resemble a PlayStation video game controller. Shelley Rodgers the art director for the halftime shows stated that “I think the
was symbolic, his way to reach young people,”.
Warning Wrong Way
At a point in the performance lights flash from the crowd spelling out the words “WARNING WRONG WAY”, now this is being interpreted in many ways. Some suggest that it could mean the United States is moving in the wrong direction while others believe it means that his performance didn’t go the way “Uncle Sam” wanted.
Overall, this performance had loads of symbolism. No matter how you felt about it I hope you were able to learn about the meaning behind Kendrick Lamar’s performance and can now go and watch it knowing all these things.
Sources
– The Root
– WIRED
– The Hill
– History
