I have to admit I was naive. I didn’t get it at first. But then I did a little research…

I listen to rap & hip-hop music regularly. It’s powered my workouts for years. But other than a song or two, Kendrick Lamar has evaded my playlists for the most part.?

I understood why he would perform at the Super Bowl half time show. With the ongoing rap feud with Drake his music has made it into the mainstream and caught the attention of the NFL.?

Or more importantly, the audience that the NFL wants to attract to its biggest event of the year.

But I’m not sure even the NFL was expecting the barrage of subliminal messaging it had provided Kendrick Lamar with the platform to provide.?

So where did it start?

Samuel L. Jackson commenced proceedings playing the role of Uncle Sam.?An oppressive character in the black community and often depicted as a personification of the U.S Government.?

“It's your Uncle Sam, and this is the great American game”

But what game I hear you ask?

You may have noticed the stage replicating a PlayStation controller. You may have thought it was sponsored or a connection to the Madden NFL video game. But it wasn’t.?It's a much bigger game.

It was a nod from Kendrick of his awareness of not just the systematic game he was partaking in, but how he was going to use the game itself to raise awareness of it.

Kendrick opened up by performing a few of his well known songs but Uncle Sam wasn't exactly pleased...

“No,no,no! Too loud, too reckless! Too…Ghetto” said Uncle Sam.

Warning Kendrick of the “agreement” for him to perform, Kendrick switched up for his more “mass-friendly” pop duets with female artist SZA.

This pleased Uncle Sam!

“That’s what America wants! Nice, calm. Don’t mess this u…”

?Like with most performances, Kendrick saved the best til last. Performing his Drake diss track “Not like us”.

Now when a song has 235million views on YouTube you think you would finish with that one.?

So why didn’t Kendrick?

This performance was never about publicity or fame. It was about inequality, injustice and encouraging people to look deeper than the surface.

The Super Bowl is America’s most watched sporting event. A 30-second advert costs over 8 Million Dollars.?

And Kendrick Lamar’s choice for his final song.

“TV Off”.?

Followed by a light display.

“Game Over”

The Super Bowl lost 1.3m viewers after Kendrick Lamar finished his half time show.?

Much of the performance was made about rapper Drake. But he took many more shots at the systematic issues of the U.S.

Did they even notice?

All while Donald Trump made history as the first US President to attend the event.

People will see what they want to see.

Let me rephrase that.

People will see what is convenient to see.

Unless you're prepared for the feelings that the inconvenience may cause.

If you’re open to seeing injustice then you will.

If you’re not then you won’t. That space is probably already allocated to your own perceived injustices.

I read that there is always a reason behind what Kendrick Lamar does.

But creating a rap beef and using it as a sideshow to facilitate a performance in front of 135million people in order to raise awareness of social injustice couldn’t have been the plan.

Could it?