#Halftime Show

[durnesque-esque]

Speaking of the Super Bowl, this is a screen shot of a video ESPN posted (the commentary text on the video is theirs) and I find it *fascinating* that the official video of the show didn't show this angle.

So most folks at home didn't see the shadow being cast on the ground, which is a very classic "hangman" from tarot. Although, I'd assume we're supposed to think of other hanging men when we see this. Strange fruit, if you will.

Powerful. Upsetting. And of course, hidden from TV viewers.

[boy-gender]

On top of all the other messages going on in kendricks performance, I wanted people who maybe didnt watch the game to see that not only did the people dressed in red white and blue form the US flag, but they also formed the trans flag:

The biggest celebrity in the world shouting out trans people during the biggest televised event of the year. Kendrick, the man that you are 💙🩷🤍🩷💙

[iammelissap]

A dancer raised a Palestine and Sudan Flag at SuperBowl Halftime show.

FREE PALESTINE and SUDAN

🇸🇩 🇵🇸

[painandmovies]

Kendrick Lamar performing in front of his back-up dancers dressed in the American Flag colors of red, white and blue after Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam says rap is "too ghetto" for the Superbowl. That is all.

[sen-thebootmutt]

I wanna talk about some vitally important symbolism in Kendrick’s performance this evening.

Follow me.

Kendrick had an entirely Black dance cast for this performance, all dressed in red, white, blue, and some in black. But, I specifically want to focus on this arrangement, at the beginning of the show.

The dancers create the appearance of an American flag. A flag, the symbol of American history and heritage, formed out of Black bodies.

The legacy of America is that of the state that was built on the work of Black bodies. Enslaved Black bodies.

But it’s deeper than that.

Kendrick puts himself at the center of the flag. Now, yeah, part of it is performance; it looks better with your performer surrounded by the “supporting cast,” so to speak. But, with Kendrick, it’s never that simple.

Kendrick centers himself, imo, to demonstrate that he is functionally America. His experiences, his life, is America. He grew up poor, urban, the son of working parents. He was nearly led astray as a youth, but turned to art and philosophy and dedicating himself to his craft, and found both fulfillment and success. In the popular myth of the American dream, that’s the ultimate goal.

And he never once did it by selling his soul to capital (again, in the ‘mythos of Kendrick Lamar’). He never betrayed his culture, or took the quick money, or let his art be co-opted by the vultures that feed on Black culture for mass (white) consumption.

Again, this is just a quick and dirty analysis by one person who only developed an appreciation for hip-hop recently. For deeper, more informed analysis, seek and study the Black academics who know far, far more than me.

[alchemyfreak123]

KENDRICK LAMAR - Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show

[dragondroid]

Yeah, dunking on Drake is fun, but I don't see a lot of people talking about the rest of the halftime show.

The dancers emerging to form a divided American flag. Uncle Sam telling Kendrick he's "too loud, too ghetto" and that America wants "nice and calm." Ending the performance telling everyone to "turn the TV off." And the fact that all of this is being very deliberately done at the Super Bowl, the most televised yearly event in the country???

This show was a beautiful celebration of Black American culture, a clapback against racist anti-rap rhetoric, and another chance to clown on a rapist, but it was also a condemnation of the bread and circuses of media that the Super Bowl represents. People want to stick their heads in the sand and ignore everything happening in this country, so Kendrick did something impossible to ignore.

[takunwilliams]

Turn the tv off x2

[frontpagewoman]

Serena Williams during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show

[mylionheart2]

[tayloralison]

KENDRICK LAMAR Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show

[sasha-eatsmold]

truly the moment of all time

[painandmovies]

You see across social media the difference in how Chappel Roan is praised for "starting a movement" by bringing up healthcare in terms of her own benefit, but Kendrick Lamar, with an entire discography on social issues and bringing attention to stuff going on in the world to those less financially sound than him gets reduced to the "Not Like Us" craze, because it's a single feeding into the rap battle culture and it "annihilates" Drake.

[idyllghost]

It’s not my usual content but it’s important. It’s a disservice to only call Kendrick’s performance a televised fuck you to drake. It was so much more than that. It was an open critique on the current state of America, it was a live performance at one of America’s biggest events where he spoke against America’s racism and descent into fascism. Yes he performed Not Like Us and of course Drake was ripped to shreds (again) but it is so much more than that.

[kaleidographiks]

A Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime show Poster ⭐️💥��

Someone requested this as a print so here it's the file!!!! ★⭑.ᐟ ‼️ ONLY for personal use, DO NOT sell. ╰┈➤ This could also work for a printed t-shirt! https://ko-fi.com/s/a4d38dd290