Now that we’re almost a month removed from the Super Bowl and the dust has settled, the world is ready to put 2024’s premier rap beef behind us and focus on the bigger picture.
Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance was the most watched in Super Bowl history, and it had it all. From Samuel L. Jackson’s “Uncle Sam,” to Serena Williams crip-walking on Drake’s proverbial grave.
It delivered on every level.
Since then, Kendrick has occupied four of the top ten spots in the Billboard Top 100, a feat rarely accomplished by halftime performances.
It was a brilliant capstone to this arc of Kendrick’s career, but it left some wanting more.
While many were satisfied by the theatrics, the political commentary understandably fell short for others. Lamar notably opened the performance by telling viewers the revolution was about to be televised, an interpolation of Gil Scott-Heron.
Kendrick had an audience with President Donald Trump, the first sitting president ever to attend a Super Bowl, an opportunity some think he squandered.
“I thought it was fun, but I didn’t really think it was interesting,” said Carlo Kim, an LA native and current student at Brown University. “I think a lot of the political discourse surrounding it is derivative of the fact that people are feeling polarized and hopeless and are willing to make messages where there aren’t any.”
Others were more supportive, such as Sergio Godinez, an LA native and employee at the city mayor’s office.
“Us Angelenos live and breathe the spirit of the city and Kendrick’s halftime performance was a full testament of that spirit,” said Godinez.
“What makes Kendrick Lamar such an electrifying performer is that his performance is not only visually appealing, but it has a thesis. He wants to tell you about the LA he knows, whether it’s the Hollywood Sign or Tam’s Burger on Central and Rosecrans,” he said.
Division isn’t new among viewers and listeners. Another Kendrick concert, another 1000 years of discourse. But this one sparked a unique conversation about the role artists ought to play in their community.
For Kendrick, an unapologetically Black hip-hop artist and outspoken member of the Compton community, many make the case that he hasn’t done as much for them as he should. During the beef, Drake famously accused him of not returning to his hood to plant “Money Trees,” a callback to Lamar’s 2012 hit by the same name.
However, Lamar’s actions show otherwise. He has done charity concerts for years now– last year’s “Pop Out” concert raised over $200,000 for various non-profits in the Compton area, including Boys and Girls Clubs and youth groups like Color Compton. This concert also united artists from across Southern California, including members of rival gangs.
“When you take someone like Kendrick who grew up in Compton, every album, every chart-topping single and every Grammy disproves the stereotypical headlines of gun violence, broken families and intercity youth,” said Godinez.
But beyond philanthropic gestures and donations, Kendrick Lamar has a reputation he’s been trying to fight off for years. Since his 2022 album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” he’s been hammering home the message that he is “not your savior.”
For over a decade now, he’s been seen by many as a political rapper, whose music can change minds. On songs like “Savior” and “Mirror,” he makes it clear that he’s just a man, who chooses to put his family and himself first. I think it’s a reasonable line to draw, but a difficult one when he’s being looked to as some kind of leader.
Whether the solution is to be a community leader or a political one, DePaul Professor and Chair of the Africa and Black Diaspora Studies department Amor Kohli draws parallels to jazz, another Black art form.
“In the 1950s, we saw more Black American jazz artists start to incorporate African influences into their music,” Kohli said. “Back then, that alone was a form of resistance. It’s emblematic of an overtly diasporic identity.”
Times have changed, but Black art is still political in its own way. Lamar occupies a much more lyrical art form, one that requires a more overt delivery of his messages.
“I think the real question is how much responsibility does he have to the art form,” Kohli said. “We get into tricky waters when we say the artwork doesn’t matter. The art isn’t only given value by the political work he does outside of it.”
Art is valuable in and of itself, and no amount of charity work or community organizing can change that. That being said, his work has touched lives. I think there’s a reason why Kendrick Lamar’s music resonates with the people of LA.
“Los Angeles is bright, bold and beautiful,” Godinez said. “It means something when a person can get on the country’s biggest stage and say, ‘this is my city and these are my people, and they have a beautiful story worth telling.”
