HIP HOP IS BIGGER THAN THE GOVERNMENT

When any person (and yes, 100% of inquisitors are white) has asked what the above statement on my favorite sweatshirt means, until now, they've received only a smile and a sigh.

Watch Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance if you still want an answer.?

While ANY Superbowl halftime show with a great artist alone is a recipe for hidden meanings and sneaky sneaks:?

• M.I.A.’s middle finger to the camera in 2012??
• Gaga’s sarcastic “God Bless America” before jumping off the ledge of the stadium in 2017 ??
• Eminem kneeling on stage in solidarity in 2022 (after he agreed NOT TO??)

There is something so very special about how little Kendrick gets onto all these big stages (this is his second halftime appearance) while these white folks STILL seem to have no idea that our boy K.Dot is NOT ABOUT TO BE out there just 'a singin' some hits! Like.. Do they not know who Kendrick Lamar isss…? Have.. do they.. Have they listened to his lyrics?”

This, my friends, THIS, is why Hip Hop is bigger than the government.?

And why, as Kendrick says, “You can try to rig the game, but you [really, truly] can’t fake influence.”?

This self-ordained Pre-PHD Docto-laureate Minister (me. That’s me..) in Black History through Rap Muzik is about to go SWIMMING through this performance. Grab your bubbles n’ pour up.

Disclaimer: The Drake beef is booooooring and basic. It’s a whole ‘nother Oprah for a whole ‘nother newsletter that my well-moisturized hands and aging ovaries don’t have the time for.?

Uncle Sam playing Uncle Sam?! Ooooweeee!?

JUST TRY to slap onto Black people an oppressive word, symbol, or image, and we’ll kick it up, flip it, reverse it, and make it something that anyone other than Black would DARE to face significant worst-public-accusal-for-a-white-person-is-being-called-racist consequences. (just looloolooolooka there to what we did with the ‘n’ word ??)

Samuel L. Jackson stepping into the role of Uncle Sam at the Super Bowl halftime show was more than just a cameo, y’all. (If that was not obvious to you, 1 - yikes, 2- don’t fret. It’s not your fault.)

It's not your fault.

It's NOT your fault.?

I’m Robin Williams. You’re Mat Damon.?

It's not your fault.??

If you were educated in America, learning ANY American History NOT fabricated to be white-male-hero centered (except MLK and Rosa Parks in February) is nearly impossible. You would have to have gone OUT OF YOUR WAY to learn our true history, which has been erased to maintain the myth that whiteness is superior. Especially if you’re white, there REMAINS, indeed, no incentive to do anything of the sort. So no, it's not your fault.?

And alas, here you are, right where you’re meant to be ?? (maybe even with a bubble can in hand) ??

So please do read on because?Samuel L. Jackson’s role was a TRUE hip-hop-is-bigger-than-the-government moment that flipped American symbolism.

Uncle Sam (yuck), historically a white, government-controlled figure used for war propaganda and recruitment, was THE symbol of systemic oppression for Black Americans throughout both World Wars and, most prominently, the 1960s when used to resist the Vietnam War.?

(frfr though.. If only in 2025 we had some good old SYMBOLS of systemic oppression instead of real people like the Zuck out here looking like Screech from Saved by the Bell attending the Source Awards announcing hate speech is allowed on FB again…????????♀?)

Samuel L. Jackson (my deferring fingers can’t seem to shorten his name!), a cinematic legend who came of age during the Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests, was not just wearing the suit with his commanding presence—he was reclaiming it.?

He embodied the vision of power, patriotism, and Black agency, as Mr. Jackson has done so eloquently throughout his career.

Jackson’s Uncle Sam wasn’t asking (as he NEVER HAS) for obedience; he was asserting ownership, signaling that the future of American identity belongs to those who have always fought for its promise, not just those who have controlled its symbols.

If you think it was just good 'ol Samuel L. Jackson doing "the Samuel L. Jackson," that was the point! ??

SO GOOD!?

The divided American Flag?

Not even 90 seconds in, my throat was already hurting from the OOOOOOHHHHH SHIIIIT!!'s I was screaming (lucky for everyone else) alone in my house.?

On the surface, this flag formation is very cookie-cutter/Super Bowl standard (and why it was SO GENIUS!).?

Look and listen closer.

The Song: HUMBLE.

The Flag: Split.

The Dancers: All Black men who were repeatedly BENDING OVER to symbolize how this nation was built on the backs of enslaved Africans and a nation that has funded private prisons for generations to exploit the free labor of Black men and now captured Brown asylum seekers/expats/immigrants.??

A fractured nation, a racial divide that remains as stark as ever, and a system that THRIVES on Black labor (imprisoned, "pro" sports, etc) but resists Black liberation.?

The Super Bowl, a game where 53% of the players are Black, is played in front of a majority-white audience in a league run almost entirely by white ownership, where generational wealth is built on the physical, emotional, and mental sacrifice of Black athletes.?

We’re totes comfortable watching Black bodies collide for sport, breaking their bodies and minds for entertainment, then discarding and saying they are the problem when they end up broke and mentally unstable after retirement. ??

The NFL has tried to address this with some in-house programs, but the ?? stain remains:

America eagerly funds private prisons—industries profiting off mass incarceration and modern-day indentured servitude—but balks at universal healthcare, fair wages, and equity in employment, structures that would actually support Black communities rather than exploit them.?

Yet, there it was, disguised as Kendrick's 2017 hit HUMBLE., and in the shape of the American flag that he happened to be standing in the middle of.

? Easy to miss if you’re how-ever-many Coors lights and nachos con queso deep. ????????

The PlayStation Controller?!?

Another DIRECT side-eye to mass incarceration and the system designed to keep Black and Brown men in a never-ending cycle of exploitation.

The choreography?

The movements?

The structure?

Straight out of a prison exercise yard.?

In the NFL/Pro sports, the pipeline from the football field to the prison yard is very, very real. The same Black boys we cheer for under Friday night lights in high school are the same ones over-policed, over-criminalized, and thrown into a system that profits off their captivity.

?? The field? A game.

?? The players? Characters are to be watched, controlled and moved around.

?? The system? A machine profiting from their physical labor inside and outside a prison.

Football, just like the prison-industrial complex, operates like a profit-driven game where Black men are the players but never the ones with the controller.?

It’s no coincidence that the NFL treats its draft process like an auction, analyzing Black athletes for strength, endurance, and durability—just like enslaved people were examined on the auction block.

I'm not ?? sorry that you'll NEVER see draft day the same. ???????? Ever. ???? Again. ????

And just like in gaming, the people in control—the owners, the investors, the system itself—hardly change.

Kendrick put it right in front of us: America will turn Black men into athletes, prisoners, and entertainers before it ever turns them into free men. And the audience?

Still watching. ??

Still cheering. ??

Still pressing “play.” ??

Still singing “A miiinnooooor!!!!” (babbhahahaa. I was dead??! On the FLOOR. Kicking my feet in the air…?????? ..stomach pains. everything... the joy was too much for this body to take!).??

Lest you think this was Kendrick was just out here doin' an ol' rap battle doo woppity wop with his ice chains and backwards rapper guy hat..

You just made it to the 1,200-word mark.....

Kendrick Lamar knew exactly what he was doing. Please. Keep up.

From the very first words Kendrick spoke:

“The revolution will be televised.”

That wasn’t just a reference to Gil Scott-Heron—it was a warning.?

A signal.?

A message for the people who get it.

“You picked the right time but the wrong guy.”

Translation: You thought this was just a halftime show? You thought this was just a lil performance? You thought I was here just to entertain you? HA. Wrong.

He had the controller THE????WHOLE????TIME.?

Kendrick Lamar didn’t just expose the game—he showed us how power is taken back.

Yes, he TRUTHED us on how we watch, cheer, and invest in the destruction of Black bodies, whether through the NFL or the prison-industrial complex.?

Yes, he stood in the middle of a divided America, surrounded by Black men smiling, full grillz, JOY. FULL.?

Yes, he gave us the blueprint for resistance.?

Yes, the icing on this Resistance-is-our-Black-Joy cake was none other than Serena Williams?!?!? STOP. IT.?

A billionaire. A Champion. A Legend. From Compton. Who crip-walked at the Olympics in front of the whole world, taking a dance born in HER streets and making it a global flex.

Serena. Who dominated a white, wealthy sport, then bent it to her will. She wasn’t there just to be seen—she was proof.

Proof that the game will CONTINUE to be flipped.

Evidence (therefore a threat to white supremacy) that you can change the rules as much as you want, we gon’ still be out here winning.

At this point, I was throwing pillows. I’d stood up and collapsed several times, only to be BESEECHED by the finale + MUSTAAAAAAARD.?

This was not about hot dogs, ball sport, and video games, people!

We were given a command.

"Turn his tv off"

And like every move Kendrick makes. It had layers on layers on layerz.?

1. It was a knowing wink to the majority-white audience—“If you paid any attention, you might be getting a little uncomfortable by now…so go ahead.. turn the TV off"
2. It was a wake-up call to the Black and Brown audience. Turn the TV off. Let’s all stop passively consuming. Let’s stop watching THIS game (this football game, this administration's game, this rap battle game) and know that there's MORE for us.

The beauty of hip hop and its ability to be bigger than any government is in its multiple meanings. In the same way Lamar distracted the mainstream with the Drake battle, he?knew?that?most?people wouldn’t fully grasp much of the MUCH larger political message.?

THAT WAS THE POINT.?

He gave them (the producers, the funders, the people paying) what they wanted—the hits, the red, white, and blue, the hype, the energy, the x’s and o’s, what looked like the good 'ol Black rappity rap hip hop n bibop, with household-name-level recognizable celebrity appearances.

But ooooooh buddy, our short king, Mr. Morale, and this GENIUS creative team wop wop wop wopped ALL the CHORDS.

Serena—a billionaire from Compton who flipped the game on its head. PlayStation controller—a visual metaphor for Black men being controlled, gamified, commodified. The prison yard—a reminder of where Black bodies end up when the system is done extracting their labor. And at the very end?

The ultimate message: Wake up. Get off the sidelines. Stop watching, start moving.

Because the revolution will be televised.

But it won’t be WON until we ALL turn the TV off.

????????