Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime performance on February 9, 2025, predictively ignited widespread internet discourse and analyses on its presumed coded, subversive, or even “revolutionary” character.
It was clear that Kendrick sought to do more than deliver a musical set in one of America’s biggest entertainment venues: he used this opportunity to make an important political criticism. Riding high as the presumed victor of his rap beef with artist Drake, Lamar’s performance focused primarily on cementing this victory and delivering the message, “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than music.”
With all African dancers clad in red, white, and blue, arranged to assemble the U.S. flag, this moment in the choreography symbolized how stolen Black labor is the foundation of America.
Another standout moment of the performance was the frequent interventions of “Uncle Sam,” played by African actor Samuel L. Jackson. The satirical Uncle Sam reminded Kendrick that he had to “play the game” and criticized him whenever Lamar strayed from the expected narrative. The Uncle Sam character encouraged Kendrick to be the equivalent of a “good Negro,” but Lamar rejected this role in performance.
Many other moments, symbols, and creative decisions could be interpreted as cultural expressions of resistance. In fact, hip-hop and rap exist as consequences of African resistance. However, Kendrick himself has not confirmed these interpretations, and the performance lacked a clear call to action.
The People Set the Cultural Agenda
The African Internationalist, a descendant of the Black Revolution of the 1960s, understands that African culture is not only a way of life but a foundation for waging the struggle against colonialism. Our culture shapes our resistance, defining its form, meaning, and expression as we oppose the colonizer’s imposed way of life.
Given this understanding of African people’s revolutionary culture, it is no surprise that Lamar’s performance fell short. This is not a question of whether Lamar is a talented lyricist, performer, or entertainer. This is not a question of whether or not his performance was culturally relevant—it was.
Kendrick, separated from the African working class, is not the revolutionary figure we’ve been waiting for. Rather, it is the current moment—defined by intense anti-colonial resistance and the crisis of imperialism—that calls for one. As brilliant as Kendrick may seem, it is the people, who’ve ushered in this historical moment, that inspired the musician’s performance decisions.
African artists cannot treat this era of resistance as business as usual. More and more, there is an expectation that artists accurately reflect our conditions. This is, in part, what made the rap beef between Lamar and Drake significant in the first place.
Lamar has been hailed as a “conscious” rap artist whose music has traditionally aimed to be thought-provoking, while Drake has always promoted the same old wealthy lifestyle music that exploits African workers while making colonial record labels millions.
Drake lost the battle and the war because an overwhelming majority recognized his obvious disconnect from the African community and his history of masquerading in African culture despite having a significantly different, “white” upbringing. It was Drake’s failure to acknowledge his own parasitism and the colonial question that resulted in his embarrassing loss. The people wanted more than clever bars and “I’m taller than you” retorts.
But as inspired as Lamar was, an artist’s responsibility is ultimately to the revolution, and we must ask ourselves, how conscious is Kendrick of this aim? Like Amílcar Cabral says in his essay Weapon of Theory: “We are not going to succeed in eliminating imperialism by shouting or by slinging insults, spoken or written, at it.”
African Culture for the African Revolution
A true act of protest during Lamar’s performance was when a dancer brandished a Palestinian flag with “Gaza” and “Sudan” written on it. The dancer was quickly chased and escorted off the field.
The defeat of colonialism and imperialism requires united organization, revolutionary theory, and disciplined analysis and practice—of which culture is both the foundation and reflection. The serious matter is that the African Revolution calls for art and artists that are of and by African workers.
Artists, as Richard Wright put it, must “stand shoulder to shoulder with Negro workers in mood and outlook.” We cannot be satisfied with superficial digs at the colonizer that, at best, represent a pitiful and undignified position of “we’re Americans too.” We are African people first and foremost, and our revolutionary culture will necessarily reflect that.
As the Director of International Affairs of the African Socialist International, Luwezi Kinshasa, put it in his 2013 Spear article titled “Our Culture Must Be a Weapon We Use to Defeat Imperialism!“:
“What is the function of hip-hop, dancehall, soca, rumba, ndombolo, and other styles created by African people? Is it to be in peace with imperialism or to be the people’s cultural weapons against imperialism? For the African Socialist International (ASI), we want our people’s cultures to be weapons to defeat imperialism. The defeat of neocolonialism and the unification of the African Nation as a single state for African people are the foundation and the guarantee of the new African national culture.”
It is not that art, for the sake of itself, is the sole driver of revolutionary change. Zadie Smith once wrote, “It’s a delusional painter that finishes a canvas at two o’clock and expects radical societal transformation by four.”
However, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the role of art and culture in the way we envision and wage our struggle against colonial, neocolonial, and imperialist exploitation. Cultural imperialism—the plundering of African cultures—was enacted because even the colonizers knew that a people who know who they are will always fight to preserve who they are.
Therein lies the power of our cultural production to articulate the tradition of African peoples’ struggles throughout history and envision the world we want to build once the treachery of colonialism is defeated.
Hence, it matters to whom we ascribe the term revolutionary artist. If Lamar truly desires reparations and freedom for our people, he should commit his talents to our Movement and join the African People’s Socialist Party. Then there would be no need for interpretation.
African people’s revolutionary culture will always be the product of African workers, for within them lies the seed of the African Revolution.
