#halftime show 2025

[abigailspinach]

Wop wop wop

[airlocksandaviariesarchive]

Halftime Kendrick 🤩

thanks so much to @lilhawkeye3 for her breakdown, and to @creatingblackcharacters for her thoughts, and to @bingbopboombam for their statement about the performance <333 they did all the analysis, I just did the doodle :)

[catwouthats]

Does this look like Him showing that America dies by fascism rising to anyone else? The people who made up the flag literally fell like they “died” and a good chunk of them made their bodies in to the Nazi symbol. He just… basically said that fasicm is killing America… or am I reading this part wrong?

[oxfords---notbrogues]

Kendrick Lamar at Super Bowl LIX (2025)

[painandmovies]

Yes the halftime show is bigger than the music and a cultural revolution with symbolism and metaphors still somehow going over people's heads. But can we talk about the entertainment value in tandem. how anyone is saying it was boring is just beyond me. First of all, all music is symbolism; look at the videos if you can't discern some sort of allegory or double meaning, even if it's not saying something particularly deep. But back to the entertainment: The cohesion and wide-shot lines of his dancers that formed to look like a very game throughout that is visually pleasing as much as great halftime shows are (including them walking in a rotating circle for the American being controlled aspect <- I couldn't contain myself; I had to include some symbolism). His back-up dancers put on a PERFORMANCE. That one section of them breaking out that people people have been copying (you know the one). Him smiling for the specific part of Drake's funeral. SZA, SERENA, SAMUEL L. JACKSON; put some respect on their names! He also kept up his breath control, which is especially hard to do when rapping as fast as he kicked-off his setlist with (and having to real-time bleep out his words). He hyped up the crowd and they were singing out the most well-known words. People have been sleep on this man to not know that he is a true performer by nature! His damn jeans garnered more interest than some halftime performances over the years.

[yutamayo]

I feel like we should actually be talking about Kendrick Lamar's Superbowl performance alot more here.

Deadass a statement for black people and America. I fucking love this. I don't ever watch the Superbowl but holy shit this iconic. And fucking Serena Williams Crip walking nah this ain't right, this PERFECT.

[pizza-feverdream]

I have watched and read too much dystopia I was fully expecting Kendrick to get assassinated. That must have been fucking terrifying but I have so much respect for him

[painandmovies]

It seems people truly lost the meaning in "THEY not like us" amongst all the rap-beef with Drake. This song has always been in part a commentary on stealing black culture, being affected/moved by the culture or understanding it, not just with one-singular person in Drake.

This is an interesting part of a convo he had with SZA for Harper's BAZAAR last year:

“‘Not Like Us’ is the energy of who I am, the type of man I represent. Now, if you identify with the man that I represent…He’s a man who can recognize his mistakes and not be afraid to share the mistakes and can dig deep down into fear-based ideologies or experiences to be able to express them without feeling like he’s less of a man. If I’m thinking of ‘Not Like Us,’ I’m thinking of me and whoever identifies with that.”

This track contains the heart of his culture/upbringing/how he views himself in the world. He talks about Compton, where he grew up and how he doesn't necessarily match the image of the industry, a powerful white-dominated designed space for success. Yes, it's a direct attack towards Drake after the back and forth singles, but there's so much hidden in there for lyrical symbolism and his artistic expression.