Donald Trump was the attraction of the Super Bowl? Only for the first few minutes. Then Kendrick Lamar and steel came the show with a provocative performance.
Anyone still says that America’s artists would hold back with criticism of Donald Trump. Not so Kendrick Lamar. What the rapper delivered to the half-time show of the NFL final in New Orleans on Sunday can confidently call spectacular majesty insult. On the square, the duel was called Philadelphia Eagles against Kansas City Chiefs, but it was also: Kendrick Lamar against Donald Trump.
Right at the beginning of the show, the 37-year-old made it clear that he does not only understand his appearance as a breakdown of break. “The Revolution is about to be televised, you picked the right time, but the wrong guy”, he complained in alluding to a classic in African -American music history. “The overthrow is transferred on television, it is the right time, but you chose the wrong man.” A first top against the US president-and not the only one.
Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson had already disguised the lamar appearance as ‘Uncle Sam’. “I greet warmly,” said Jackson. “Welcome to the big American game”. However, he did not refer to the Super Bowl. No, rather Jackson referred to the elaborate staging of the show – because it was ambiguous and highly political.
It was one of the best half-time shows in history to send it in front. From the superb choreography, about the star cast: In addition to Jackson, singer Sza, rapper Mustard and even tennis icon Serena Williams, who completed the black celebrity cast-also appeared-a total work of art full of critical allusions to the America of the present. An America that is socially deeply divided, devastated by fires and plagued by hate. Lamar provided the soundtrack and the right pictures. And he stole attention to the US President, who had the government business rest in order to stage himself in New Orleans as a tribuna.
Lamar’s scenery builder had designed the stage as a “cheese box” playing field in the type of success series “Squid Game”. Therefore, a choir danced on background dancers who were dressed in the colors of the American flag, but they reminded strikingly of the candidates of the Korean Netflix production, in which volunteers have an unscrupulous struggle for money and influence.
“Look at the American game,” Jackson had gone into the microphone. It probably meant the cynical game that Trump and Musk want to impose this contemporary with their radical libertarian, freed from every morality.
- Read the game report on the Super Bowl here
At another point in the show – Jackson spoke several times as a whitening narrator figure during the twelve -minute performance – he said: “America was once lovable and tranquil”. Lamar rapped verses in which a “cultural divide”, that is, a cultural struggle and a division, spoke. To read easily as a criticism of the current state of the US society, in which Democrats and Republicans, Trump supporters and opponents of the President are irreconcilable.
Lamar himself was dressed in the blue of the Democrats, around his neck a chain with an “A”, for America, was mented. Look, said Lamar and Jackson with their appearance, we are black, we are the minority in this country, but we are loud. We are also ‘uncle sam’ – the figure that is considered the national symbol in the American folklore alongside the Statue of Liberty.
The African American capture of ‘Uncle Sam’ was a particularly rebellious travesty. Originally a older white man with goateewho advertises for the US Army, ‘Uncle Sam’ became one that evening Older black man with grotesque cylinderof which the stars of the US flag sparkled. Jackson embodied him with diabolical grin and visible fun of the provocation. What did all the white suprematists, “Proud Boys”, “Oath Keeper” and other right-wing Trump admirers have thought in the face of this calculated cheek?