I'VE BEEN ASKED what I think of Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Superbowl. Well, asking me that assumes I'd have watched the Superbowl which I am morally opposed to existing though I'm not opposed to the half-time acts, at least as a matter of general principle. I'm more likely to listen to his than many of the previous acts, I'll forego going far into my anecdote of when my two young nieces who had been forced to sit through the thing with their maternal grand-dad thought that it was hilarious to see old men jumping around like rock stars when Mick and his old Stones did it. And that was a long, long time ago, now.
I think I had heard the name Kendrick Lamar before but I hadn't ever heard his music so I had to go to Youtube University to listen to it and it's good that it had subtitles because it goes so fast I wouldn't have caught a lot of the words. I had to look at another Youtube that explains Drake vs Kendrick to white People to understand some of what it was about. And I heard other names I really should check out but there are lots of names I should check out that I never get around to checking out. Obviously this entire area of music is something I'm unqualified to understand because I haven't been listening and so much of it is based in insider information.
First, obviously I'm not Kendrick Lamar's target audience, the use of the "N" word lands on an old white-male egalitarian's ears differently than I'm sure he intended it. I generally don't think it's a good idea to use the language of the enemy but, after many years of hearing it used by LGBTQ+ People, I finally could get used to using the word "queer." Though I still don't like it. But that's only that word, the political content I could discern I generally agree with though I think the irony and sarcasm and satire (I think he is one of the rare artists in the English language who seems to understand satire) blunts it. Like most art of the type it seems to be a lot heavier on documenting wrongs and criticism but is light on suggested responses to wrongs. But it's art and not a political lecture.
As for his catfight with Drake, it's more interesting than Betty Davis vs. Joan Crawford - it seems to be about issues instead of just show-biz - but I don't care about either of those brawls.
As far as listening to it regularly, probably not. I think he's got musical ability and talent and even some inspiration - a lot of that more as a song track to the theatrical video that his music is presented in - I wonder what it would be like to have heard his music without seeing the videos first. I don't think it's primarily about the music, hip-hop and rap seem to me to be more a species of recitative than real songs, recitative has always been primarily a vehicle of texts and meaning not melody. I think it would be more substantial to deal with his text which is the substance of it.
I can say that anyone who can piss off the people Kendrick Lamar pissed off by appearing at that corporate-pagan Mammon Circus Fascisimus is OK with me, in that, at least. I read online that the NFL regrets asking him to perform which is probably to his credit.
I wish him well, I hope he contributes to positive change.
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