I HAVE WATCHED the video of Kendrick Lamar's halftime show three times and, apart from the use of the "N" word which I don't think I have a right to get used to, it's among the most remarkable pieces of live theater I've seen documented on video.
The complexity of the music alone, largely due to the complex structure and content of the text, would make a live delivery of it from memory a remarkable artistic and intellectual accomplishment. The non-stop top speed of something that complex would make one number remarkable and it was one after another for the duration of it.
On top of that is the complex choreography with a huge cast of dancers-performers, some of them singers as well, that those two aspects of it came of on such an enormous stage, live, is proof of the high intelligence, great talent and discipline of all involved. And I haven't gotten into the extremely complicated intellectual content of it. The mix of history, politics, morality, sociological ideas, as well as things like the feud between Kendrick and Drake - which is an extremely complicated thing, all in itself - was clearly understood by the major performers, Kendrick Lamar, Samuel L. Jackson, SZA, Serena Williams, and others whose name I haven't caught yet and, I'd imagine, most if not all of the chorus and dancers. Samuel L. Jackson a mainstream actor took an enormous career risk in playing a malevolent Uncle Sam urging and threatening Kendrick Lamar to toe the mainstream line was extremely brave, especially as what I'd guess will be a new Hollywood blacklist is about to start. Big media is certainly falling in with Trumpian fascism just as it did during the red scare. I don't think I'll ever think of Uncle Sam in any other way from now on. I was also extremely impressed with Serena Williams' performance.
That Kendrick Lamar, his cast and his team came up with what was extremely subversive art one month into Trump II, with the entire mainstream, corporate media falling all over themselves and burning democracy not to mention equality to cinders is courageous. I hadn't paid that much attention to the reaction to it, and the positive reaction is entirely more interesting than the predictable white-supremacist reaction (including a surprising number of Black media hacks.) But now I can begin to understand what the excitement is about.
That such an amazingly impressive performance of such a complex theater piece was created and performed by an All Black Cast is a blast against the Republican-fascist-media attack on Black People under the new "N" word, "DEI." That the cast of drooling idiots in the Trump regime are being applauded by the mostly white corporate media - making a fool of the White Supremacist John Roberts with his lie that America is post-racist and so didn't need the Voting Rights Act anymore - are a complete contrast to the brilliance and excellence of the creators and performers seen by a record audience. I think that's the reason that a remarkable number of People around the world are copying the moves they saw, white People as well as People of Color. I've seen commentary about how a remarkable number of white Women online have taken it to heart. Certainly anyone who has been victimized by the same game that Kendrick Lamar and his cast took on in the show would feel it spoke for them as well.
I should have waited till I watched the actual thing several times before I commented on it. I may not listen every day but I can say that I'll do what I hadn't done before, click on videos as they appear on my side bar because I want to keep up a bit. Something I don't generally feel at all about pop music in general.
Wow...trying to be hep and getting down with the kids, Sparky? How pathetic is that. 😎
ReplyDeleteOh, and here's a hint -- all half-time (stadium) shows by anybody suck. It's baked into the esthetic.
You had a hissy-fit when I first posted the story of my two young nieces who, when forced to sit through it, including Old Mick and his Old Stones, they thought it was hilarious to see a bunch of geezers acting like rock stars. I'd go through your . . . um . . . work . . . to see what you've said about past half-time shows but it would be tediously predictable. I don't watch half-time shows, I was only commenting on this one and it was an exceptional piece of theater recorded on video. Considering the movie music you tumesce over I'm not surprised it would go over your head. Admit it, you couldn't concentrate on it.
DeleteOh puhleeze, as everybody knows, you made up that story.😎
DeleteIt was 2006, the older one was about to turn eleven so that means the younger one would have been nine. I had to tell them who Old Mick and his Old Stones were because they'd never heard of him. They thought it was supposed to be funny. I should remind them of it when the older one has her birthday party to see what they remember of it.
DeletePS: Leni Riefenstahl did it better. 😎
ReplyDeleteSimps, it would be hard to say something was the stupidest thing you've said but that's among the stupidest. Equating a radical rejection of America's version of German fascism, American white supremacy with a movie by Hitler's favorite film director filming a Nazi rally. I'm not surprised that you can't tell the difference or understand what makes them nearly exact and perfect opposites. You really shouldn't have ever worked as a "critic" though as you specialized in what was, by comparison, bubblegum rock it's no surprise you can't tell the difference.
DeleteOh, and it wouldn't surprise me that a cis-gender straight, white, male who grew up in affluence in the suburbs and who clearly has problems with non-standard thinking wouldn't find any point of commonality with it. You've got a lot in common with the MAGAs who are going nuts over it for whatever differences you might have with them. I'm sure they'd agree with you that the Nazi skank did it better, too.
DeleteHow did I know that you wouldn’t post the entirety of what I wrote,?God, you’re so predictable in your lying putzhood, , Sparky.😂
ReplyDeleteWell, if you want to embarrass yourself even more I've got no problem with that.
DeleteTwo words hilariously missing from your comprehension vocabulary — context and irony.
DeleteI know you won't take the challenge, but explain exactly what context and what irony you're referring to.
DeleteNow watch Simps do the Simels shuffle to change the subject because he was referring to nothing as he threw those two words against the wall.
Any idea how many zillions Lamarr got paid by the NFL for that performance? Wow… talk about Sticking It to the Man!!!!!!😎
DeleteWhat did I tell you, the Simels shuffle.
DeleteI wonder, Simps, when the last time you expected a white bread rock star to work that kind of venue for free was. The more money at stake for all involved, the more courageous putting it at risk by presenting anti-oligarchy content is. You're just upset that he got a bigger audience than the old white men you've been tongue bathing for decades.
"You're just upset that he got a bigger audience than the old white men you've been tongue bathing for decades. "
ReplyDeleteOh good lord, putz-face -- the vast majority of the brilliant musicians I try to endorse -- and who you've never heard of -- can barely make their financial ends meet.
Which is an indication of the value of your endorsement, wouldn't you say. No, of course YOU wouldn't. Clearly they aren't in the same category as Mick and his old Stones, the Mopheads and the others who didn't get as big an audience as Kendrick Lamar did last week. Keep doin' the shuffle, Simps.
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