It’s no secret that Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us has taken the world by storm this past year, especially after winning five Grammy Awards last week, including both song and record of the year.
If you are familiar with the song, you also may be familiar with its background. In case you aren’t, last year, J. Cole called Kendrick, Drake, and himself “the big three” in his collaboration with Drake, First Person Shooter. Most people listening didn’t think much of this, as all three are prominent figures within the hip-hop industry. However, Lamar did not like this, and his response to this claim in his feature in Metro Boomin and Future’s Like That goes as follows:
“Motherf*ck the Big Three… It’s just big me.”
Kendrick Lamar, “Like That” by Metro Boomin and Future
And this broke the internet. From this, we got songs we all know and love, including Push-Ups, Taylor Made Freestyle, and 6:16 in Los Angeles by Drake, and Euphoria, Family Matters, Meet the Grahams, and Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar. Ultimately, Drake ended up suing Lamar and Universal Music Group for some of the wild accusations made against him within the lyrics of those songs. If you want more about their beef, look here.
But this is not about Drake (although I would likely be just as distraught and ready to sue if I were him). It’s about black history, the divide within our nation, and the culture’s perception of black art.
Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam was one of my favorite parts of the show. The actor used his role to symbolize the relationship between Lamar and American idealism. He called the set “Too loud, too reckless, too.. ghetto” and deducted “one life” when Lamar was joined by his “homeboys” on stage. While Lamar’s hits have gained him international recognition, many white people view his art negatively simply because they do not understand the cultural significance it holds for him and so many others.
All of the dancers in the show were dressed in full red, white, or blue, and at one point, while Lamar was performing his hits (per the suggestion of Uncle Sam), they formed a divided American Flag. This speaks absolute volumes, especially considering that the President of the United States, Donald Trump was watching this from the audience. Since reclaiming office in January, Trump has made it clear that his utmost priority is to remove all diversity initiatives from any place he can. He wants our country to move backward.
The final thing that stuck out to me most while watching this halftime show was what Kendrick Lamar said before starting Not Like Us.
“Forty acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music.”
Kendrick Lamar, Superbowl LIX Halftime Show
In case you don’t know your American History, Union General William T. Sherman promised 18,000 formerly enslaved people 40 acres after the end of the Civil War. This was to provide economic independence for these people who basically had to start their lives from complete scratch. However, after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, his successor, Andrew Johnson, overturned this policy, returning the land to former enslavers. To this day, the effects of slavery and segregation linger throughout black communities, with systemic racism making it even more challenging for people of color to break out of the cycle of poverty. According to Statista, the poverty rate for white, non-Hispanic Americans in 2023 was 7.7%, while for black Americans, it was 17.9% (for all races, it was 11.1%, with Native Americans having the highest rate of poverty at a whopping 21.2%). And remember, the poverty rate doesn’t include those who are just above it.
So, Kendrick is right. His message is bigger than the music. It’s about the facade of the system that claims liberty and justice for all; it’s about the divide between different cultures and how it feels to live in a system built on hating you and refusing to change its mind. Many people I know said they didn’t like the halftime show, and I think that’s because they didn’t get it. In my eyes, this was one of, if not the greatest, halftime shows ever put on, and I hope America opens its eyes to that.