Representing America: The Cultural Significance of Bad Bunny’s and Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Shows

Theodora Newton ’29

Critics have argued that Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar are not representative of American culture due to considerations of race, ethnicity, and language. On the contrary, they are both accurate exemplars of American culture and music as a conglomeration of different cultures and influences, with roots in the country’s Black and immigrant populations.

Journalist Nettrice Gaskins cited the backlash against the NFL for choosing Lamar. “American mass culture prefers simpler, catchy melodies over more complex rhythms, with prominent rapping and storytelling.” In other words, Lamar is too politically critical. For Bad Bunny, the backlash was even stronger. Right-wing political operative Corey Lewandowski argued, "It's so shameful that they've decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game.” No accountability is taken in this perspective for the reasons Americans might feel angry right now. In her article “Why the NFL stood by Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show,” Kalyn Kahler reported Kristi Noem repeatedly threatened to send ICE to the halftime show, suggesting all Latinx and immigrant fans of the star do not belong in America.

During an interview with political commentator Ezra Klein, writer Ta Nehisi Coates explains the connection between the current Trump era and the reality of America for Black people throughout our history. In response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Coates observed, “The fact of the matter is, as horrifying as the killing of Charlie Kirk was, and as horrifying as the feeling is in this moment, that we are in an era of political violence…Political violence is the norm for the Black experience in this country.”

Lamar similarly illustrates the nature of the African American fight for the American dream. Lamar cast actor Samuel L. Jackson to play Uncle Sam. In “Not Your Typical Halftime Show: The Political Message Behind Kendrick Lamar’s Performance,” Barnard student Suhani Kapoor wrote that Lamar “presents a certain ‘scorekeeper,’ as if there is one person keeping ‘score’ in America…someone with the power to ‘deduct’ a life. The suggestion of that sort of fascist regime in America is a bold one to make.” Lamar’s boldness parallels Coates’s bravery by stating the same truth, that two nations exist in America, one that African Americans and minority groups experience, and another that serves the white population. Lamar refers both to a historical truth of Black people in America and further points to a future America in which everyone is going to, as Lamar coins it, be forced to live inside “The Great American Game.”

The creative liberties taken by Lamar ride the line between creating awareness for a future he is afraid of and responding to a past in which the reality for African Americans has been unjust. During his performance of the song HUMBLE, Lamar has many Black dancers form the shape of the American flag using their bodies and the color of their clothes, a metaphor for the fact that America was built on the backs of Black slaves, according to Cheyanne Daniels in “6 hidden messages in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance.” Daniels notes how slowly the flag splits in half, with Lamar in the middle, alluding to the current fact of America, one of extreme polarization between parties. Kapoor also observes how dancers circling Lamar begin to fall to the floor, except the dancers closest to Lamar in the center, who remain standing. She states, “The powerful, Lamar shows, are trying to control everyone else and protect only themselves.” Lamar alludes to the oligarchical shift in American politics, a few incredibly powerful people remain the winners of a game they created, while everyone else dies off.

Bad Bunny’s choice to keep his music in Spanish rather than translating it to English speaks to Lamar’s idea of playing against the rigged game. The subtext of Bad Bunny’s performance highlights how it's better to prioritize connecting with your own community, since those at the top predetermine everyone else to fail in comparison, writes Joshua Rivera in “The Deeper Meaning of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance.” The rigged game in search of the American Dream comes clearest in the immigrant stories from the past century, because the entire country is made up of immigrants. Bad Bunny's music, as a newer genre of American pop, is a fusion of Puerto Rican sounds with American hip-hop, which is a mix of African and Caribbean sounds.

In fact, this dynamic of denying foreign cultures from being American and simultaneously blending them into our style has been going on since our founding. The British Invasion was a musical and cultural phenomenon of the 1960s in which pop/rock bands from The United Kingdom, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, took over the mainstream American music scene. At first these artists were treated as something un-American, and angered American artists for taking up the space for success, as shown by the article, “Beatles Backlash Spurs Modern Blues; Performers in ‘Village’ Influenced by Britons Paul Butterfield Band Stirs Excitement,” published in The New York Times in 1965. But eventually the sheer popularity of the British bands made it so that their style was forever a defining aspect of American culture.

Critics of Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar represent the current conservative trend to rewrite the progress we’ve made in retelling American history. President Trump's recent interest in rewriting the Smithsonian' s version of American history pinpoints the struggle to exclude the Black and immigrant perspectives from the larger narrative of the nation. Trump reveals to us the defining nature of race in America by expressing his obsession with controlling the race narrative. It's a shared fear among the right wing that if the reality of race in America is articulated in truth, the power and pride behind the white reality will diminish. While this is the only way to morally improve our society, it scares those who thrive off of the American racial hierarchy. The administration argues in Executive Order 14253, “Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” The story of America is one of race, because our nation has survived upon two factors, the Slave Era of the United States and the presence of immigrants in our country. Kendrick Lamar’s and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performances are relevant to the ongoing attempt to re-frame the Black and immigrant experience at the center of American culture, a fight more important now than ever.

Note: Parts of this op-ed were revised to change the citation format.