Kendrick Lamar, The Super Bowl, And The War Against Conscious Rap

Intro all right so this is really not something I talk about typically on my channel if you look at my feed I primarily covering the NBA and basketball related topics but I felt strongly enough about this so why not take a stab at it and obviously yesterday we all got the news that Kendrick Lamar will be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show first thought Kendrick Lamar is more than qualified to headline the Super Bowl he's been in the game for a very long time numerous amounts of hits a lot of commercial success and he simply is just one of the best if not the best performer in hip-hop so if we talk about performance Why Kendrick Was The PERFECT Choice the first thing people like bring up a lot are like these Festival performances right where it's kind of easy to get away with not doing well individually on the stage because you have a million kids outside in the crowd jumping up and down a lot of times we'll see a lot of these performers do well in that particular area then they'll get to like these live TV performances or whatever and they're not able to do as well so perfect example this is not at all a disc towards Travis Scott but Travis Scott Travis Scott is amazing when it comes to performing like these festivals like Coachella or like his Astro Fester whatever the case may be but if you get Travis Scott on TV he is not doing well in that particular environment this is coming from a former Travis Scott fan it was painful watching with my parents and with my family watching him on stage during that Super Bowl with Maroon 5 then we also look at like his Grammy performances right Travis Scott is not really good when it comes to performing in multiple venues and not just him a lot of rappers kind of struggle with this not Kendrick Kendrick is somebody who can do multiple venues he can do different environments and dominate within each of them he can do the festival thing right he can also do the live TV thing look at his SNL performances his Grammy performances and even his Super Bowl halftime performance back in 2022 when he was a guest along with Dr Dre 50 cents Snoop Dogg Mary J BL Eminem and everybody else there so that's my thoughts about Kendrick himself doing the performance he is more than qualified he is in my opinion the best performer in hip-hop he will put on an absolute show I would be surprised if this does not go down as simply one of the greatest halftime show performances of all time if you think I'm over exaggerating go back do the research and look at Kendrick Lamar's history of performing on that stage but I'm not here primarily to talk about that I'm here to talk about the backlash there has been so much backlash to this now to be completely honest this happens every time like when a hip-hop performer is announced to perform everybody's going to start talking about who should have performed not just with hip-hop but just with anybody in general everybody's going to kind of come to this uh conversation on social media or whatever about who should have gotten it or whatever the case may be so obviously this time around people are saying that Lil Wayne should have gotten the performance because it is in New Orleans there are a million reasons as to why Wayne isn't the best choice but I'm not going to get into that but some of these The Worst Takes I'm Seeing Onilne takes about Kendrick Lamar not just with this conversation with Super Bowl conversation but just in general after this beef these takes I'm seeing online about Kendrick are absolutely ridiculous the one take that gives me the most is this idea that nobody listen to kji Lamar that is one that got me the absolute most because it is so untrue like sometimes you'll see people say things that is so inaccurate that it bothers you right like it's kind of like uh I'm G Give an example here Joe Biden when he debated Donald Trump Joe Biden is 10 times the debater than Donald Trump is Joe Biden is 10 times the politician that Donald Trump is but you can see the annoyance in Joe Biden's face when debating Trump sometimes it gets difficult debating people who will not acknowledge they are wrong and actually they will cling to their wrong takes and opinions this applies here it is one of the most inaccurate things of all time to act as if nobody listens to Kendrick Lamar I remember saying or seeing like a post like a comment under a post around like when not like us dropped somebody said I hope yall support Kendrick's other music outside of this beef that take within itself is one of the most ridiculous things of all time people have been running with that I don't know what it's about at all go look at Kendrick's hits go look at Kendrick's album sales and all of those things if you like looking at those things because quite frankly I think it has nothing to do at all with the discussion about how great of an artist you are but go look at his Commercial Success if we want to compare him to Drake yes Drake is relatively more commercially successful but there have been years where Kendrick Lamar has outsold Drake there just have been years like that if you go back and look there have been situations where Kendrick's albums have performed better commercially than Drake's albums Kendrick has a Cavalcade of hits this idea that not like us is the first Kendrick Lamar hit it's like so ridiculous everybody knows it's a ridiculous take but it just angers you to see it because there are people who legitimately think that is true that's the thing is people will cling on to these opinions that are so incorrect they will hold on to them as if they're the truth you may not listen to Kendrick and I get it Kendrick Lamar is not easy to listen to for absolutely everybody Kendrick's music can be an acquired taste kind of like Frank Ocean and like a Toler Creator Kendrick's music is not as easy to digest as a drake or some of these other individuals I understand you not being a fan of Kendrick Lamar but this idea that nobody listens to Kendrick Lamar is so so far left field the fact that people hold on to that taking that opinion it is ridiculous and it has become a recurring thing that people are talking about through this entire Fiasco and that was actually one reason why I didn't want Kendrick to engage in this is because I didn't want to hear people on social media saying that because in my opinion honestly also it's really disrespectful to the work that he has put in this man has given us so many amazing albums over the course of time The Legit Vs. Wrong Critiques Of Kendrick Lamar and so many great messages which kind of brings me to my next point this is something I saw somebody kind of talk about and Drake also kind of tried to double down on this throughout the beef is this Narrative of Kendrick being a fake activist so let's kind of get into that so I'm seeing it pop up a lot uh with the Super Bowl thing people saying that of Kendrick was such an activist why would he be doing the Super Bowl right I understand the critiques of working with the NFL if you're a black artist or whatever the case may be I understand that because the NFL has an extensive list of doing things that are openly racist right and actually an extensive list of people who have worked within the NFL whether being in the front office or being coaches or whatever the case may be there is an extensive list of troublesome individuals when it comes to their relations or their opinions and thoughts on black people I understand that completely but let's get to this fake activist thing and this is something Drake tried to talk about throughout the battle and people have kind of run with it when did Kendrick Lamar say that he was an activist for one two does conscious rap does being a conscious rapper automatically make you think that you are an activist or a savior for the community in essence what conscious rap is it is somebody giving their perspective on being black in America and these struggles of being black in America through their music this is not just a thing with rap and hip-hop this is a thing throughout the course of black music history go look at the Harlem Renaissance a lot of the music that came out of there was conscious it was not this thing that people trying to make it out as like this pretentious know-it-all sort of thing it is black people giving their experiences and their perspectives through their music saying that Kendrick is a fake activist is actually disrespectful to the history of black music because all of black music in essence has a level of Consciousness in it go look through the history of black music it is all in there and Kendrick Lamar Jay Cole no name they're just continuing that Legacy of conscious hip-hop music acting like that is troublesome too because you have a lot of people that act as if conscious rap is troublesome it's ridiculous and this whole thing about the fake fake activist uh response towards Kendrick Lamar I don't think we understand uh how that's actually taken a lot from white supremacist talking points so go right now online to Twitter and go debate with go pick any troll white supremacist account on Twitter right and go give them legitimate points about whatever you're debating about police brutality institutional systemic racism go give them points one of the things they're going to try to do is they're going to try to look at your character and do character assassination because they cannot combat your points so that is one of the tactics uh when it comes to communicating with these individuals is they're not going to try to argue their point they're just going to try to discredit you as an individual so this thing we're seeing right now with Kendrick and I'm not trying to victimize Kendrick Kendrick has has said and you know included in his music some things that I think at times are disagreeable and I don't agree with all of Kendrick's politics and views on the world but this idea of trying to combat his message with oh you're a fake activist some of us don't understand how Troublesome that truly is because that's derived from a lot of troll white supremacist talking points it really is trying to do like a character study on an individual because they're giving their perspective on being black in America is absolutely ridiculous Kendrick would be an issue if he was using conscious rap and he was using his perspective on being black in America as just a way to remain popular so good example Kanye West Kanye out of his own mouth on drink Champs said that he only used conscious rap as a way to get into hip-hop because nobody was going to believe his image as a gangster rapper that is where conj rap is problematic if you were using it to just get in and using it to be deceptive I don't listen to K Lamar's music and the things that come out of his mouth the things that he says and think that he is just UTI ing this as a way um to win people over I don't get that vibe from him at all with the things that he says and where he aligns and you can go do the research on that yourself I'm not going to get into all of it I don't get the vibe that Kendrick is just saying these things to try to get right with certain people and get right with certain demographics as a matter of fact I find myself surprised that Kendrick Lamar is this popular with some of the things he has said in his music and again I don't agree with everything that has come out of Kendrick Lamar's mouth all of his viewpoints he is not perfect he is not a savior at all none of these celebrities and rappers and artists are but acting as if he's trying to do that just because he is giving his perspective on being black in America is extremely problematic and it is derived from white supremacist troll talking points look into it it happens all the time one of the things they're always going to try to do is discredit the messenger it happens so so many times you could be given a perspective and they're going to go like oh but you did this you did this this happened actually in George Floyd I'm not saying he was an activist at all but when George Floyd passed what was one of the things that people online were trying to do discredit him as an indivi individual well he did this and he did that so I'm not saying Kendrick is the same as any of these people but that tactic in essence is the same I can't combat your Viewpoint I can't really find a problem that I have with your perspective or I don't understand your perspective so I'm going to try to discredit you as an individual Happening Here with Kendrick conscious rap does not equal you thinking that you were a savior of the community and it's not equal you thinking that you are an activist now there are legit criticisms to conscious rap right I do believe there is a role that conscious rappers have in the community I think Kendra could do a better job at it if you're going to profit off of making you know conscious music and giving your perspective on Black America and everything like that you should be very involved in the community and things of that nature I don't know all of Kendrick's uh philanthropy efforts and what he's doing to help Advance the black community tangibly I don't know about that but that is a legitimate criticism and critique for Kendrick but the fake activist that whole thing or the fake woke or fake conscious and that whole that whole like opposition to conscious rap is actually pretty pretty strange and the fact that Drake would run with that as a talking point knowing that he has never really tried to make conscious music himself or he did early early early career but ran away from it because he didn't feel like he could benefit off of it he didn't feel like it was going to benefit His image that is very problematic for him to try to use that angle and for his fans to run with it and a lot of his fans not being black people and not being black Americans who understand the struggle that is very problematic and that has been a major issue of mine through this entire beef and everything like that and I wish people would pay more attention to how problematic it is because it is very problematic the microaggressions are crazy again Kendrick is not perfect by any means necessary but this opposition to conscious rap and acting as if conscious rap within it within it of itself is problematic is ridiculous and this fake labeling of him and his music is ridiculous and it doesn't just happen with him happens with Cole happens with no name happens to a lot of people that are just trying to give their perspective on Black America through their music and in that way they're actually continuing a tradition of being black and that is by including a message within your music in your art as I said go look at the Harlem Renaissance go look at the 80s right with all the conscious rappers that are coming out there ks1 Rakim all those individuals go look into it but these talking points have been ridiculous and very toxic and I don't really know what we can do at this point to turn it around um but we'll see what ends up happening but those are just my thoughts on this entire Kendrick Drake Fiasco and where it is now uh let me know what your thoughts are as well but just wanted to give my perspective on that