Hidden Messages in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Performance

During the halftime show performed by Kendrick Lamar he hid a few messages in the performance.

Serena Williams wasn’t just a guest in the halftime performance. What you might not know is she was a direct diss to Drake as she was Drake’s ex, and she didn’t just dance; she was crip walking, which is a dance made by a gang called the Crips mainly from around Southern California.

When Kendrick turned to the backup dancers and rapped, “40 acres and mule, this is bigger than the music. They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.” Kendrick was referencing a promise made to black people after being freed from slavery as reparations that was part of Special Field Order No. 15, but after Lincoln got assassinated, the 17th President Andrew Johnson overturned the policy and gave the land back to the original owners

Samuel L. Jackson appeared as Uncle Sam and introduced Lamar to “the Great American Game.” The characterization was one that showed a different narrative of what Uncle Sam, who’s normally depicted as a white man, looked like. His role was of a different uncle who is from Harriet Stowe’s 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which refers to black people turning on the black community and culture. One point during the performance Jackson called Lamar “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” referring to stereotypes associated with Black Americans and hip-hop

Earlier in the performance, Lamar speaks of “the revolution” saying, “The revolution is about to be televised; you picked the right time but the wrong guy.” Which is a reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” that argued that change doesn’t come from corporations but individuals. Some social media users speculated that it was a direct attack at President Trump who was at the Superbowl. Kendrick has criticized Trump in the past including in his songs “XXX.” and “The Heart Part 4.”