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PORTSIDE CULTURE

HOW KENDRICK LAMAR DRAGGED TRUMP DURING THE SUPER BOWL WITHOUT THE
NFL, OR TRUMP REALIZING IT  
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Lawrence Ware
February 13, 2025
The Root
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_ Both in his lyrics and the visuals that he chooses to highlight in
his videos, Lamar is never direct. _

, Photo: Patrick Smith (Getty Images)

 

The NFL gave Kendrick Lamar the biggest platform in sports to stage an
artistic protest. Like many Black Americans who took to social media
to say they were disappointed that K-Dot didn’t comment on Trump,
Roger Goodell and his crew may have missed it. But the critique of the
administration was there. And the league paid straight cash, homie
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field during the half time show…well, artistically.

Let’s get this straight. Mr. Duckworth may be from Compton. Monsieur
Dot may have street cred. But at his core, that dude is an _artiste_.
(I have to use that spelling and put it in italics because that what
you do when describing people like him.)

Both in his lyrics and the visuals that he chooses to highlight in his
videos, he is never direct. Yes, he called Drake a pedophile in “Not
Like Us,” but he chose to be subliminal in the video for the song by
simply hopscotching to make his point about Mr.
“I-lost-a-rap-beef-so-I’m-going-to-lean-into-my-whiteness-and-sue-because-that’s-what-rich-white-people-do-when-someone-offends-them.”

Therefore, to expect Lamar to make an overt, blatant political
statement about Trump is to miss who he has always been. Instead, he
used symbolism and imagery to make his point.
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the Black Uncle Sam to the disjointed American flag embodied by Black
performers, he critiqued America. It may take a few viewings to fully
get it, but watch it enough, and you will see that he is not just
taking shots at a man who makes questionable choices about his
footwear,
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also the Commander in Chief.

But here’s the thing. He made the NFL pay for it.
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same league that was in a tizzy because Kaepernick had the audacity to
kneel during the Star Spangled Banner. The same (mostly) white people
that go out of their way to be over the top in their patriotism. They
paid for him to be unapologetically Black and artistically critical of
the man who sits in the Oval Office. And if people have not figured it
out yet, they will eventually.

According to the NFL, 133 million people watched Lamar live.
That’s a 3% increase
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Usher’s performance last year. So far, it has more than 42 million
views on the NFL’s YouTube page. People watched and are rewatching
that performance. And given the amount of writers 
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put pen to paper
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try and explain what was going on in that performance, people will get
the message loud and clear: Kendrick Lamar gave a huge artistic middle
finger to the Trump administration and he made the NFL pay for it.

* Kendrick Lamar
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* super bowl
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* Super Bowl LIX
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* blackness
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* Donald Trump
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