(ThyBlackMan.com) For millions of people, the Super Bowl is the most highly anticipated event of the year — in sports or otherwise.
With all due respect to baseball fans, it is the culmination of America’s actual favorite pastime. (The numbers don’t lie.) For other people, the “big game” is simply an excuse for presenting a half-time extravaganza — much like airports are an excuse for the money-printing prowess of parking garages.
This year’s show featured Kendrick Lamar, the diminutive superstar rapper whose biggest hit, “Not Like Us,” was ubiquitous last year. Seriously, I’m not sure that there was anywhere on the planet where one could escape that song’s hypnosis-inducing beat, brought to us courtesy of DJ Mustard.
While the 1968 Mexico Olympics will forever be remembered most for Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’s silent protest, New Orleans’ Super Bowl 59 will always be hailed (and lamented) for Lamar’s stunning visual ingenuity and irrepressible aural virtuosity. If you didn’t actually witness Lamar’s performance, there is virtually no chance that you haven’t heard about it.
Lamar transported the rawness of the street to the highly managed corporate stage, inviting all of America (and much of the world) into a discussion of Black life. By and large, young people knew what Lamar was saying. (I mean that figuratively, not just literally.)
On the other hand, many of us who are “of a certain age” had difficulty understanding much of what Lamar was attempting to express. (I mean that literally, not just figuratively.) Having grown up with RUN-DMC and LL Cool J, I often find myself having to find lyrics online in order to decipher what an artist is saying.
In any case, Lamar breathed new life into the phrase “staging a performance.” His unique revue was replete with so much symbolism that one can easily be forgiven for having missed much of it when watching the performance in real time. Some of the symbolism was heavy-handed; some of it was almost imperceptibly subtle.
The symbolism included the design of the stage. At one point, the platform was transformed into an outsized PlayStation controller. As writer Touré points out, those who were “in the game” (i.e., on the stage) did not have the ability to see the entire platform, let alone those who were “doing the controlling.” Lamar was suggesting that the same is true for those of us who are “on stage” in real life.
Then there was Samuel “Uncle Sam” Jackson, who intoned (with his incomparable yelling), “Don’t you know how to play the game?” Jackson’s Uncle Sam was the personification of conservative white Americans’ fear — and Black Americans’ admonition — regarding Black men being too black (or too “ghetto” in his words).
For many, Jackson’s performance called to mind his turn as “Stephen” in Quentin Tarantino’s controversial “Django Unchained.” (For the uninitiated, Stephen was a proverbial “house negro” whose primary responsibility was to serve “massa” at the expense of his fellow enslaved people.)
At another point, the stage became a prison yard, referencing America’s over-incarceration of Black men, who represent nearly a third of all men who are sentenced to federal or state prison at some point in their lives. Most of them have been damned twice, the first time being when they were born into a socioeconomic system that is designed for them to fail.
In a nod to a global phenomenon that no border protection law can banish, Lamar had the stage become a version of Squid Game. That reference highlighted the depth of resilience and the height of innovation that African Americans have had to display in order merely to survive a rigged system. That “scene” saw Lamar conjure both the seething outrage of Bernie Sanders and the life-preserving humor of the late Bernie Mack.
Of course, Lamar also highlighted America’s most important symbol — the flag. He had Black men dress in red-white-and-blue tracksuits to simulate the flag. This brought out strong reactions from the MAGA crowd, who wasted no time in becoming duly offended. It is surreal that the people who view the Jan. 6 insurrectionists as “patriots” were so appalled by Black men who were figuratively “wrapped in the flag.”
It was an inspired response to the controversy regarding DEI. It sent an unmistakable message that the law can never eradicate efforts to make America live up to what its founders wrote on paper — even if most of them didn’t have Black folks in mind when enumerating liberty. Yes, those who are legislating against DEI have the power of the pen. But they’re always going to bump up against the power of the purse, as well as the power of perseverance.
Kendrick Lamar’s performance wasn’t just musical; it was magical.
It wasn’t the legerdemain of men in suits pulling white rabbits from black hats; rather, it was the portrayal of Black men in tracksuits pulling pride from prejudice. In the words of Dr. Ken Harris, Lamar succeeded in “turning a diss track into a victory lap.”
In short, Lamar put Black folks up on stage while concurrently putting white folks “up on game.” Thus, it was appropriate for Lamar to shut things down by having “GAME OVER” displayed in giant letters.
Like the Philadelphia Eagles, Lamar left nothing on the field.
Written by Larry Smith
