Kendrick Lamar is known for his poetic lines and complex lyrics. His songs often hold themes related to self reflection, personal struggles, racism, and many more societal issues, making him unlike any other rapper. During his performance that he knew would be seen by millions of people, he refused to give an easy, meaningless performance to please others.
The performance starts with the stage being divided into 9 boxes, with triangles, circles, squares, and x´s appearing. This is a reference to the playstation controller. We then see Samuel L Jackson playing the role of Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam welcomes the audience to ¨The Great American Game¨. This ties the playstation reference to America, suggesting that this is a metaphor that Kendrick Lamar has used to reach young fans and share his experience with the American music industry.
The show opens with Kendrick on top of a Buick GNX from 1987, the year he was born. Kendrick wears a jacket that reads ¨Gloria¨, referencing a track on his album, ¨GNX¨. He starts with a snippet of GNX.
Background dancers dressed in red, white, and blue are seen leaping out of the Buick GNX. These outfit colors represent the American Flag. Kendrick Lamar then says something important: ¨The revolution about to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy.¨ This quote is related to the song ¨The Revolution Will Not Be Televised¨ by an American poet and songwriter, Gil Scott-Heron, off of his first single, ¨Home is Where the Hatred is.¨ The original song had themes of black liberation and was released in the early 70´s. It was meant as a wake-up-call to the people that for a revolution to be in order, they must take action instead of lazily hoping.
After Kendrick Lamar performs his song ¨Squabble Up¨, he is interrupted by Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam calls Kendricks music ¨too loud, too reckless, too ghetto.¨ This unwanted criticism from Uncle Sam represents people who critique rap music, pointing a finger and labeling it as ghetto from a place of prejudice and a lack of appreciation for the genre. Uncle Sam then asks if Kendrick really knows how to play the game, wanting him to play nice and give a performance that is not controversial.
We then see the background dancers in a formation that looks like the American flag. The Background dancers then split, which some speculate that this may represent American people being divided based on their beliefs.
We also see Kendrick Lamar diss Drake, a popular rapper he had been in controversy with for almost a year now, in multiple days. He features 2 of Drake’s ex girlfriends, Serena Williams and SZA in the show. He also performs his diss on Drake, ¨Not Like Us.¨
Overall, Kendrick Lamar’s performance was a great success. There was lots of meaningful symbolism and it was all very clever. This show is definitely something to watch back to really understand and take in the performance.
