Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show: Peak of all rap battles?

Of course, he played “not us.”

Towards Kendrick Lamar's headline performance at the Super Bowl Lix halftime show on Sunday night, most of the chats will play songs that are effectively knockout blows in last year's months of battle with Drake I focused on what? The songs and the national anthem of the generation that became Lamar's signature hits. The song won both Record and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards exactly a week ago. A song that probably seemed to readjust the hip-hop power rankings forever.

Yes, Lamar played the song. Of course, towards the end of the set, you build expectations with a few short musical nods that tweak the emotions and thirst of the audience.

But what is always remembered from this performance is not the music choices that Lamar made, his choreography aesthetic, or the silhouette of his clothes. When he finally starts rapping the song, all that remains is his smirk. It was broad, lasting, and almost in a cartoonish form. A smirk at a man who sacrificed his enemies and had time for life.

Lamar is perhaps the most calm of hip-hop modern greats, a ferocious storyteller who cherishes the controversy and introspection that stumbles on the tongue. He's not exactly a beacon of joy. During the beef, he appeared to take on the dismantling of Drake as a necessary homework.

But “Not Like Us” was a popped champagne cork. It was hinted, parceled out and finally began with the Lama Idiom at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

And that smile. What a smile. His subsequent performance was ecstatic and a bit of a mischievous thing. When he rapped, “Drake, I hear you like 'young',” he moved downwards with his left hand, as if dabbing the child's head. I looked at it hard. He slams the line named for Drake's companions and their flaws. Given the song claims about Drake, it calls him a “certified pedophile.” (Drake sued the record labels behind both rappers for a honour loss to release and promote the track.) And Lamar didn't rap the word “pedophile” did. He ends the punchline of Sing Song, just before he lands “Minorrrrrrr.”

It was a very sight. Probably the peak of the rap fight. And it doesn't count the short moments when tennis was the great (and rumored former Drake Paramar) Serena Williams on stage and walking alongside Glee.

Conceptually, he kept the strangely modest thing for the rest of the time, considering that much of Lamar's set came down to the question of “I don't like us.” Instead of cramming into each of the hits “It's okay” or “Big, don't kill my vibe,” he leaned over the song from his latest LP “GNX”: “Garden Man, Garden , Man, “Peekaboo,” and a slightly unreleased track he used as an album promotion at the beginning of the set.

The SZA came out to perform a duet between the two “Luther” and “All Stars”, but they felt they were undercooked and almost pointed. They could read as an explanatory commentary on black artists, especially artists, such as rappers. (The Halftime Show had its first hip-hop headliner in 2022.)

Lamar himself emphasized the point, including one Greek chorus, Samuel L. Jackson dressed Uncle Sam, running through both Lamar and the audience throughout the set.

Shortly after the two SZA songs, Jackson said: “That's what America wants. You're almost there – don't ruin this…” Lamar interrupted with “Not like us.”

This was Lamar's other winning stroke here. It involves weaving the meta-narrative of night performance into the performance itself. Should he play a song filled with charges that became the subject of the honour-loss lawsuit? Can black performers ethically perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, the NFL crown jewel that took on additional political valences after the Black Life Matter movement and Colin Kae Pernik's kneeling protest?

After “Squabble up,” Jackson jumped out to experiment with Lamar. It was both a jeer and a caricature. And Lamar continued with “humility.” Meanwhile, his dancers were equipped with red, white and blue tracksuits – but took on the formation of the American flag.

At the top of the set, Lamar warned that you chose the right timing, but you chose the wrong man to air “Revolution.” But broadly speaking, Lamar nodded to these bigger struggles, but he had almost limited his passion to his most personal. This was one of the biggest stages of music and was released for Vendetta.

At least one person who was part of the halftime show had different ideas about how to use performance to advance the agenda. Towards the end of the set, he pulled out a banner combining Palestinian and Sudan flags, featuring hearts and fists. Was this performance part of the same level of commentary woven into the show where it was already stuffed?

In footage, which was filmed from inside the stadium but not aired, the individual was kicked out of the main stage just seconds after whipping the flag. He was tackled by a security co-worker in suits and ran around the field for a spell before being transported out of the field. At least the revolution will not be aired.