“I thought it was an average performance. There just wasn’t a lot of excitement, in my opinion. I’ve seen Kendrick Lamar in concert, and this one seemed to be missing a lot of energy to me. There were some songs I was hoping to hear that were not performed, and that was disappointing to me, but it looked like the audience enjoyed it, and that is all that matters.”
“I have seen mixed reviews about Kendrick’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl. Some were getting into the political messages behind it, which I was thinking of as well because the theme—everyone dressed in America’s colors—but I stay away from that and focused on the music aspect of the performance more than the hidden messages. He went out there to perform and did exactly that for the people.”
“Truthfully, I didn’t pay much attention to whether there were ‘hidden messages’ in his performance, although on social media, people are putting in their two cents on what they think about the performance. The few glimpses I did see, as I was busy entertaining guests, looked quite entertaining.”
“It was entertaining. But then, that is its purpose, right? If there was a message, I would imagine any message is on an individual basis and individual perspective. I personally thought it was a continuation of the rap battle between Drake and Lamar. There was a lot of symbolism when it comes to the lyrics of the song.”
“I enjoyed the performance. It was interesting to see the backlash it received and all of the hidden messages that were popping up afterward from all different people. His music tends to not relate to the older generation, and maybe that was why he went the route he did to draw more attention? But I thought it was cool to see Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam, which gave us a different perspective because Uncle Sam is white and kind of brings up a new conversation about racial inequality in America.”
“Social media has picked at the performance since it happened. I am assuming that those who didn’t like it didn’t look like our community, but yeah, I’m not sure. I try to stay away from politics and just enjoyed seeing a Black man perform with an all-Black team of performers. Maybe that is why people have been criticizing it? And I was entertained that he sang his most popular song right now, knowing that it could cause even more issues with Drake or possible legal issues, but it was him just carrying on the rap battle.”
