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 for him to kneel on the 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. From 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, but also the Commander in Chief.
But here’s the thing. He made the NFL pay for it. The 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 over 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 that have put pen to paper to 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.