Did it work as television? Am I the only one who thought this halftime performance was a dud? There are hosannas all over the media, then again a lot of these outlets are just looking for clicks. And I get that if you’re a hip-hop fan, if you like Kendrick Lamar, it was great to see your own on the big stage. But did it work as a performance? A guy rapping to track sans melody?
Supposedly those in the audience were “singing” along to “Not Like Us.” Maybe, but it didn’t translate on TV. Or is it just that no one is saying anything for fear of being labeled racist. Is that the country we now live in, or has Trump moved the ball, with the end of DEI, and you can now say what you truly think.
Which Questlove did, he called the Kendrick/Drake beef the end of hip-hop. But are those in the media praising tonight’s performance living in a bubble? Sure, Kendrick Lamar is a star, sure he won that big Grammy, but how many Americans truly care?
Maybe hip-hop works live when everybody in the audience knows the words. But I’d posit that most people watching tonight neither knew the words nor could understand them. They just saw a guy running around while rapping into a mic and were scratching their head and asking themselves…THIS IS MUSIC?
I know, believe me I know, you can’t say that. You can’t say so much in America today. But once again, as raw television, as entertainment, did Kenrick Lamar’s performance succeed tonight?
I’d say absolutely not.
And I’d say it’s not a racist thing to say that, after all the best Super Bowl performance of all time was by Prince, and he’s Black.
Or is Roc Nation too powerful.
I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but in reality this was the year country should have headlined the Super Bowl. Hip-hop has been losing market share and mind share and country has been burgeoning. If I was sitting in a board room deciding what to program for this year’s Super Bowl would I really have chosen Kendrick to rap to tape? Hell, the Dre extravaganza worked as TV, so it’s not solely about rap, but…
I’ve been perusing the news. The “Times”… They keep saying how great Kendrick’s performance was, are these the people who are out of touch? Are they just evidence of why Trump won?
Once again, Kendrick had the right to perform. But can you name one other Super Bowl appearance where there were essentially no instruments on stage and no melody?
And we can go back to the Grammys themselves… They bent over backward to give Kendrick and Beyoncé awards, is this just evidence of DEI in action? Something that is decried by so many Americans?
Black music has a long history of being the bedrock of not only music, but popular culture. But that does not mean a performance can’t miss the target, can’t fail to fulfill.
Writing this is going to hurt me more than help me. We live in a nation where you’re supposed to shut up, for fear of blowback, for fear of losing audience.
But I just didn’t think tonight’s performance by Kendrick Lamar worked.
There, I said it.
