A run-through Kendrick Lamar’s Superbowl halftime
Sunday, Feb. 9 2025, was the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. The Super Bowl is a championship game of the National Football League in the United States. Although there is something special about every Super Bowl, there is always a special halftime show. A halftime show is a special tradition in American football games where a famous artist performs a show. This year Kendrick Lamar hosted the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. There have been different opinions about Lamar’s performance. Some disliked it and some loved it, but there are some details of the show that crossed over people’s heads when watching.
Samuel L. Jackson, a well-known African-American actor, played the role of Uncle Sam at the halftime show. Uncle Sam is known as a personification of the American government, which makes it clear that Jackson was meant to represent the U.S. government. The first three tracks of Lamar’s halftime were “Squabble Up”, “Humble” and “DNA”, up until the performance was cut off by Uncle Sam for being “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.” Lamar and the backup dancers with him were all black. Since Jackson was playing the role of the U.S. government, it is clear Uncle Sam’s mention of the performance being too ghetto, reckless and loud was referencing the stereotypes associated with Black Americans and hip-hop music. It is important to note the color the backup dancers were dressed in. The colors were red, white and blue, representing the American flag. As they performed “Humble”, the backup dancers formed into the American flag up until it was then split in half, symbolizing the political divisions around the nation and how politics have completely divided America.
Leslie Martinez ‘28 said, “The symbolism of the American flag being split up was really cool to see especially since Donald Trump was present at the SuperBowl it was kinda funny.”
A few songs after Uncle Sam complained about the previous music, Kendrick Lamar brought out famous singer SZA to sing their most famous hits “Luther” and “All the Stars”. As they performed these two songs, it was clear the audience was far more excited than when Lamar performed the previous tracks. And that seemed to be the entire point considering how after the performance with SZA, Uncle Sam being the representation of the American people said, “That’s what I’m talking about, that’s what America wants. Nice and calm.” This shows once again how some Americans see black culture in music, telling them how they are supposed to act instead of being too “ghetto” and too “loud”.
Once Kendrick Lamar’s performance was over, it was clear that some people on the internet did not like the representation of black cultured music. An example is Charlie Kirk’s posting on X saying “This music is not my style.” The replies to the post openly agree with Kirk, some even racist. This just proves Lamar’s point on how a majority of the American people can easily bash West-culture music and even claim that it is “not real music”.
Casey Newman ‘27 said, “I did like Kendrick’s show but the twitter posts that were being racist were honestly just unnecessary, like it is okay to not like the performance but being racist about it is dumb”
Overall, Kendrick Lamar’s performance along with SZA was very entertaining, plus the symbolism was very well written. It is okay to not like the performance, but it is not okay to be racist about it.
