Not Like U.S.: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show is more than just a diss at Drake

He said “Hey Drake” into the camera.

He rapped “Not Like Us.”

Listen, I enjoy a little rap beef just as much as the next gal, but Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance was about much more than his ongoing feud with Drake. If your biggest takeaway from this performance was that Lamar rapped alongside two of Drake’s exes or that he called out Drake’s label, you should probably rewatch it.

Upon rewatching, you’ll see that throughout the halftime performance, Lamar serves up symbolism about America’s current political divide. He also references the judgment of Black culture by the same pop culture that streamed “Not Like Us” to no end this summer.

Samuel L. Jackson appears as Uncle Sam to announce and, at times, judge the performance. The all-Black dancer troupe is dressed in red, white and blue, forming an American flag at one point in the show. They also represent the African American population throughout the performance.

The presence of Uncle Sam in Lamar’s show added a visually patriotic feel but served as a judgment of Lamar’s behavior throughout the performance. After singing “All The Stars” with SZA — one of Lamar’s most popular songs — Uncle Sam said “That’s what America wants: nice; calm.”

Lamar’s political criticism even came through with choreography. At one point, the dancers formed an American flag on a set of stairs as Lamar walked down the middle, symbolizing the current divide of America’s political climate.

Uncle Sam also announces the performance as “the great American game,” a game of tic tac toe that Lamar and his dancers will play throughout the halftime show.

In today’s America, only a select few people can succeed, and once they get to the top, this ‘inner circle’ can create rules that are impossible to follow. At the end of Lamar’s performance, lights flash the message: “GAME OVER.”

“The revolution is about to be televised; you picked the right time but the wrong guy,” Lamar said, likely referring to Donald Trump.

This is the only Super Bowl that a sitting president has attended. 

Yes, Lamar took a few petty shots at Drake, as expected, but his message was clearly aimed higher — at President Donald Trump.

We’re at a point in this country where Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts are being rolled back — if you haven’t noticed, it’s Black History Month, even though Google Calendar no longer recognizes this. So when Lamar appeared with a troupe of all-Black dancers and rapped that this is “bigger than the music,” after alluding to the end of slave trade, it’s hard to ignore his criticism of the American government’s recent choices.

“Forty acres and a mule,” Lamar said, referencing the unfulfilled promise of land given to ex-slaves after the Civil War had ended.

Later in the performance, every dancer — except for those within the ‘inner circle’ closest to Lamar — falls to the ground, signifying that only a select group of people can succeed in this “game.”

If there’s one thing pop culture learned from the Kendrick and Drake discourse this summer, it’s that if Kendrick Lamar says something, he says it with intent. He’s also not one to shy away from political statements in his music.

In the first track of Lamar’s 2017 album “DAMN.,” he literally samples a conversation between Fox News reporters critiquing his music.

I’m not denying that Lamar’s use of his audience and platform was meant to embarrass Drake, because he did just that when he brought out Serena Williams — one of Drake’s exes — to dance with him during his performance. But to me, that was the least important part of his 13-minute production.

Williams’s presence was more than just dissing Drake, though, and so was all of Lamar’s performance. Her appearance also disses those who have judged the Black community for expressing unfiltered culture through music or dancing.

Even Serena Williams’s Crip Walk during “Not Like Us” wasn’t just about Drake. Williams was highly criticized in 2012 after she won her Olympic gold medal and celebrated by Crip Walking across the court. The world of tennis — a predominantly white sport — saw this dance as ‘unsportsmanlike.’ Code for ‘not what we want you to act like.’

Lamar is here to tell the world that he’s not going to be “nice” or “calm” anymore. The Drake disses in Lamar’s performance should be more of a footnote to history when compared to the number of racial and political allegories he performed in the face of President Trump.

The world should be listening.