Kendrick would probably not deny it was ghetto. Heās a leader in saying this is not a bad thing. However, if you donāt like ghetto, you may not like the dis track Super Bowl. The greatest detractors of Hip Hop Iāve met are old White men and old Black women and that should tell you a little bit about the complexities of its provocations. Artistically, I think itās proven to be Americaās most complex and certainly most political Art form.Ā
I guess what Iām saying is, the poster here can be seen as racist or not depending on the color of their skin. To me, that raises a more questions about racism than it definitively tells me anything about that poster. Whatās more interesting is the the poster themselves is blocked, so I really donāt know if it can be interpreted as racist.
I don't even like rap but I loved the show. I have a hard time deciphering the lyrics to most songs, so I didn't understand half of what he was saying. But from what I did get, I loved
FWIW, if you ever find any rap you like, the more you listen to that artist the more you learn how they flow, their vocabulary and dialect and itās almost like learning a subsection of language.
Little side note, but they will never call a white artist a "performer" just remember that. They'd call them by their real name. But a black person on stage is a "performer".
Maybe I'm reading too deep into it, but just thought I'd point it out
I think Kendrick is an incredible artist and usually a great performer.
But the halftime show was objectively terrible. Compared to Dre/Kendrick & Co. in 2022 (which was a 10), this was like a 3. The sound was fkn awful. The creative direction was abysmal. It was visually boring af. It was just bad in every way.
I agree that it was very layered. Kind of reminded me of Missy Elliot or Childish Gambino "This is America." I could care less about beef with Drake. That is kind of a tired trope and feels a bit manufactured TBH.
Iām 23 and obv listen to these new artist but you also have to consider that not everyone in the country listens to rap / hip hop music especially the middle aged - old people. Kendrick is irrelevant compared to some of the other artist that were possible to bring
Your arguments are not there, he had the top song of last year and has won 9 Grammys in the last 3 years. Rappers donāt get more mainstream than him. Plus the crowd erupted with āa-minor,ā so they knew
i get what you're saying about overall demographics and picking artists that align with that, but saying kendrick is irrelevant is kinda crazy. dude just won 5 grammys, had a #1 billboard song and topped the charts in 2024. not like us was overplayed af last year over streaming, radio, etc. he IS popular right now
Well didn't he just walk away with all the Grammys? It's weird so many are complaining that the person who just won all the Grammys shouldn't perform because they are not mainstream enough.
Not everyone in the country listens to any singular music.
not everyone in the country listens to rap / hip hop music especially the middle aged
Straight Outta Compton came out in 1989. It sold a million copies in six months. Who was buying it? Because if they were between 13 (when I bought my copy) and, say, your age (23) those people would be roughly between 48 and 60 now.
The worst part with these russian propaganda mouthpieces (literally his case, look up Tenet Media) is that if you ignore them and don't confront them, they'll keep yapping around with their bullshit
If you do, you spread their message around for free, it fucking sucks all around
What is Benny Johnson even talking about? Good thing his commentary is dogshit because he doesn't know how to speak properly like an actual commentary. If you've heard his commentary yk what I'm talking about.
They say that then voted for an unqualified, untalented ābusinessmanā to run the country. I donāt think they have much room to talk.
They all understand the deeper meaning, and are offended because he called the racists out š¤·āāļø
Black Uncle Sam, the American flag built off the backs of African Americans, āthe revolution will not be televisedā, āturn off the TVā, āsit down, be humbleā, āthey tried to rig the game, but you canāt fake influenceā they know who his show was directed at, and they are offended that people are calling it out.
They definitely didn't get the symbolism. I watched it with my parents and my mom kept complaining because she couldn't understand what he was saying. They think the dancers creating an American flag and Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam are just a part of the patriotic pageantry of the show. Americans aren't smart, and they're not deep.
Not just black people, but black and proud! They despise black people so much they canāt understand why someone would be proud of it and they get confused and angry about it.
I was looking forward to him making more of a statement, but any anti trump sentiment seemed very subtle, especially compared to his hating on Drake, a has been canadian pop star.
This would have been true before the beef as drake fans were always matched drakeās corniness (drake the type of guy memes used to dominate 2010s) but post beef Kendrick fans are much more obnoxious. Like Kanye/Pusha T fans werenāt this annoying post beef and they used to be top 5 most annoying rap fanbases.
They are, and people are entitled to make fun of that opinion. People are entitled to make fun of people making fun of that opinion too. Free speech is fun lolĀ
I mean, it did suck. The whole Super Bowl was pretty crappy in the context of what we usually get, aside from last year, which also had a crappy halftime show.
How the heck does this compare to Lady Gaga repelling from the roof or Katy Perry coming in on a lion? Maybe I'm just spoiled from previous shows.
The first half the audio was messed up, could barely hear kendrick. But seeing the entire superdome call drake a pedophile was the most legendary shit ever lmfao
See that's part of the reason I didn't like it. It's so fucking petty to use the superbowl as a platform for personal beef. It was entertaining, but it was just kinda weird and petty.
I mean, the Drake diss is his most popular current song and just won 5 Grammys. I donāt think any Super Bowl performer wouldnāt play their current hit song.
For what its worth I'm white, male, GenX and I liked it.
I thought it was one of the better halftime shows.
It was certainly better then having to watch some washed up artist that was relevant 30 years ago play there old hits.
I've never been a fan of Jackson but I liked what they did with him and the red, white and blue imagery and choreography felt provocative in the current political climate.
He literally said āthe revolution is about to be televised you picked the right time but the wrong guyā. It literally doesnāt get any clearer than that lmfao
Yeah I donāt get this cope āitās because he was blackā dude Michael Jackson prince and the show with snoop dogg were universally loved. This show was just lame as fuck.
My opinion, as a black dude who is gen z, I didnt like it either. The performance wasn't good and I would've liked it if he performed a different song of his, maybe something that didn't revolve around one man.
God forbid people expect to see a musical instrument played during a music performance.
No one said anything negative about Prince, so you can all stop pretending this is about racism.
EDIT:
Go ahead and downvote me. Iāll also remind you that when 500 black marching band members and Trombone Shorty played during the preshow, no one said anything negative about them either.
But yeah. āracismā because no one enjoyed the hip hop guy š
It wasnāt very entertaining. Rap shows are famously a bit of a struggle. Kendrick can make a better statement on the Grammys than the Super Bowl and moreover, he didnāt perform anything from his two landmark albums (no, DAMN. is not one of them). It really wasnāt very good and itās not political to say that. It didnāt reveal Lamarās talents for those unaffiliated.
Would I deny people still dislike Hip Hop for political reasons? No. It just so happens Hip Hop is inherently a political artform. There are those who donāt like how it sounds which is also valid. Thereās too many layers here to make liking the halftime show a partisan act.
I loved the performance with dre, snoop and Kendrick some years back. THAT was a great show
this one sounded flat, boring, and just wasn't good imo. people are saying it was great because of the message. but you can like the message and think the concept was cool while also saying the execution was bad. that's my take; good idea, poor execution in terms of performance, sound quality and energy
Exactly, and that show proves two things: the Bling Era was just a lot more fun and also a good Hip Hop halftime show can be done, but it has to be a show.
Thank you I feel like Iām going crazy seeing people act like that performance wasnāt bad. I have nothing against Kendrick or his music but the choreography was basic, the set was underwhelming and the audio quality wasnāt very good.
Thank you lmao I donāt know why we making this a race thing. I thought that halftime show was ass based on what it could of been by Kendrick standards.
I'm a casual k dot fan. I thought the show was awful. Mix sounded bad. Didn't even touch GKMC. Just 40 second cuts from a bunch of his tracks that aren't my favorites.
Im a Kendrick fan so i rewatched the performance on YouTube and the sound mix was MUCH better there. Idk who fucked up the live showā¦ but I think that even if you donāt care the the music the visuals were excellently done.
I gotta agree, the audio was absolutely horrendous, could not make out a single word said.. Supposedly that is just what rap is, unintelligible sounds to a beat.
But some people suggest it was just a bad broadcast sound mixing, since other sites they claim had better audio and could understand him.
Same haha, why does it seem like we are forced to like it, if we dont then its racist. For me, rap just doesnt fit the vibe. Its just not energetic enough for me. It was flat. But whatever,
I like them more when they're a little more flashy and colorful. This one was fine. Just a little bland. I noticed most people at the party sorta just got lost in their phones.
I just feel like so many people are going over the top with the amount of attention they give this beef because they need to over compensate for the fact that majority of those people are the same ones who supported drake at some point throughout his career.
It just seems to me in my own life that the types of people who were blasting drake songs in 5-10 years ago are the same ones obsessing over this beef.
Iunno I just hate how the Reddit front page looks more and more like tabloid magazines every day
I think rap inherently kind of sucks live. I think the sound people did a shit job, and you could barely hear what he was saying. I also don't give af about a feud with him and Drake that I need to research to understand what's going on.
TLDR: His race means nothing to me, it still sucked.
People who didnāt like it were just uncomfortable with how real the message wasā¦ my dad only likes 90s west coast style rap from his younger days (he was in his early 20s when F the Police dropped for context) so someone modern like Kendrick isnāt exactly his sound but he still got itā¦ he said the music itself wasnāt his preferred style but he liked the message it was trying to convey, he personally preferred the 2022 halftime performance that involved several classic OG hip hop legends from his era. Thatās how I know the difference. He doesnāt care about someone being black or white, he just likes old school rap better, hence why he enjoyed seeing Em, Dre and the other founding fathers of rap more than Kendrickās performance. Thatās the difference between simply not enjoying modern rap but still appreciating the talent and effort of an artist (for example my dad still loved the choreography and overall stage presence, Kendrickās music is just more modern than heās used to) and just trying to find anyway but taking the mask off and directly saying it, to dunk on a successful black man. Itās easy to see the contrast. A racist will just talk about it being pro-DEI, trashy and āthuggishā and how itās the āworstā half time performance of all timeā¦.whereas someone who simply didnāt enjoy it will just say they didnāt enjoy it and move on with their day without going into a rant about DEI. My old man was the latter thankfully, most men his age that I know, had the expected ignorant āopinionā of the performanceā¦ if you donāt like a musician, thereās literally zero reason to bring up anything remotely related to Fox News moral panic talking points. I donāt like Kid Rock but Iām not going to start a political shitstorm every time I see him on TV. I just go about my day. I donāt know why itās so hard for these assholes to just be honest, if youāre going to be racist just own it, so then at the very least we can identify you. Have some balls and say what you mean, otherwise just shut your mouth like a good racist, ignorant yokel should. So tired of having our collective oxygen supply utilized by mouth breathers trying to tell everyone else how the country should run or what is and isnāt ātrashyā, when they canāt even name the three branches of Government and think Fox News is still authentic Journalism despite the Governments legal ruling forcing Fox to make it clear they arenāt allowed to call themselves a News outlet, I mean sheeeeitā¦.theyāre just a glorified opinion column mixed with the indecent lack of integrity of a tabloid. At least tabloids are somewhat honest with themselves and donāt masquerade as an objective source of information in the way Fox does.
Exactly. MAAD City or appearances from TDE would have worked too. I didn't hear a single classic. I was at a Schoolboy concert and he even did MAAD city without Kdot
I thought it was good, but itās definitely not for everyone. Think of it like an art piece that requires a lot of background information and history to understand and appreciate. It VERY specifically speaks to the black American community as a whole, and many of the messages would go right over the head of those not familiar with what the words they are saying actually means.
This doesnāt make other people stupid, I think it should stand as an opportunity for people to discuss what it means, and why he had this as his message. Lots of symbolism that can easily be missed. I donāt blame anyone for thinking to sucked ass.Ā
Dude itās not that serious half the time. Many of us didnāt like how we didnāt play any of his hits . Itās a fuckin half time show . Not everything has to be political
I hate Trump too but this performance was laughable. Kendrickās voice was annoying as usual, the sound mix was bad, the lyrics were inaudible, the choreography was goofy as hellā¦People actually unironically listen to this guyās music?
This is a HORRIBLE representation of the kinda artist kendrick is. I'm a big kendrick fan but it was very disappointing. He's a crazy good lyricist with great production and some classic albums. But he didn't play hardly any of his good classic songs, which I legitimately just don't understand
I didnāt like the one a few years ago either - The Who, U2 or The Rolling Stones. Though Usher KILLED it last year. Rihanna did very well for being pregnant, I definitely couldnāt have done that.
But Iām a racist because Iām white and didnāt like the show yesterday? Yall reaching.
Watching the halftime show with my dad last night was so exhausting. I couldnāt even be bothered to argue but he threw out every taking point. āwhy are all the performers black? Seems racist.ā āI bet he says the N word. Why can they say it and we canāt?ā āWhy donāt they bring on a real band like the Doobie Brothers that people actually like?ā āHe canāt be that famous if Iāve never heard of him before.ā
When people have different tastes š±š±š±š±
No but like for real, I enjoyed it but I don't expect everyone to love it lmao it's honestly absurd to expect everyone to just magically love something
Iām not a parent but if I was I would have had a hard time letting my child watch him call Drake a pedophile at the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Itās just unnecessary. Drake is a piece of shit but that isnāt something you flex about in a football game halftime show being broadcast to the nations families
Thatās not a conservative take itās just common decency to not rap about pedophiles in front of other peopleās kids. But yea oh wow Kendrick totally got Drake again. Oh wow. Drake is a pos and Kendrick wants everyone in the world to hear his beef even if it comes off gross
Personally, zero fucks are available for the half time show here. I don't need it. But clearly the majority of viewers are 1) not actual football fans, 2)linked into the Matrix and content, 3) the definition of the shallow end of the gene pool. So chatter about this topic is like a fart in the wind, gone.
You can appreciate what the performance was conveying and still think it was lackluster entertainment wise. Iām a Kendrick fan and Iāve been to multiple of his concerts and this was one of my least favorite performances that Iāve seen of his, mainly because of some audio issues and Iām a bit tired of the whole Drake beef. It wasnāt bad or shit by any means but I think itās being hella overrated in terms of Super Bowl performances.
Yes, thereās probably a good amount of people that didnāt like the performance because the headliner was black and because it was overly political that challenged their beliefs. However you can still think the performance was āmidā and still appreciate the overall message Kendrick was conveying through his performance.
As a Gen X, I tried listening to his first album as everyone praised him. I didn't enjoy his album. Yet, I thought his halftime show was creative in how much it relied on dancers instead of flashing lights. Good use of minimalism to give a natural down to Earth feel.
Didn't watch it and if it's not 90s rappers, excluding Snoop, Jay z and the diddler I wouldn't be interested. But I'm sure it was better the a lot of the earlier halftime shows. But I normally don't watch the halftime show
Of all artist you objectively picked someone who would have done worse, literally go watch his wwe performance and comeback and tell me he wouldāve done better.
I find it funny how many people are coming out of the woodwork trying to critique the halftime show. It's not like this is the first rapper or african american artist to perform. And the crowd filling in that line shows just how far that song reaches.
The show was incredibly self-indulgent and not entertaining to me. I loved Prince, Rihanna, Usher, Bruno Mars. And I also loved Tom Petty, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Rolling Stones.....they performed as legacy acts touching on most, if not all of their hits. It appealed to hugely wide audiences and were, well, FUN. Last night's performance was dull and convoluted with incomprehensible lyrics. I would rather have had Samuel Jackson narrate a chapter from a text book than sit through that performance. Don't make this about race.
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