Dissect - Easter Eggs in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Announcement

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

There's more to it than you think. Cole dissects the many references and subliminal messages in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl announcement video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everyone to a special episode of Dysect. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. And on today's episode, we are dissecting Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl announcement, which he just posted yesterday, September 8th. I'm recording this on Monday, September 9th. You might be thinking, it's a minute and a half video. What is there to dissect? Well, a lot more than you think, a lot more than I originally thought. The more I looked into this thing, the more just kept revealing layer after layer after layer.

I don't think I'm reaching with maybe 75% of it. Some of it is definitely conspiracy theory. I'm going to be very transparent about how strongly I feel about certain things in the video. But let's just get into it. I'm going to try to make this a quick episode. I promise myself no more than 30 minutes. We'll see if I can do that. So let's start with the basics.

Kendrick is going to be the main performer at the New Orleans Super Bowl 59 on February 9th, 2025. So for Kendrick fans, this is amazing. perfect timing. Kendrick is on one hell of a run this year and this is yet another nail in the coffin post battle with Drake. So just the announcement itself, very exciting for Kendrick fans. But of course we got this minute and a half announcement video from PG Lang directed by Dave Free and it's very well thought out, very simple on the surface as is a lot of the PG Lang's visual language, very minimalistic on the surface. It appears that way. There's not a lot of elements, but each of those elements are very, very thought out.

It's a one shot, so that means it's recorded one take in one location, straight through, and so you have to assume that they really thought this through from beginning to end. So let's go over just the minimal elements in the shot, and then we're going to go kind of element by element and really dissect what they mean. So we see Kendrick on a football field, or what appears to be a football field, with a huge American flag behind him, and he has a jug machine next to him, which is kind of an automatic football thrower that you load footballs into and it passes,

presumably to another player. These, I assume, are used in practices. And we see Kendrick essentially practicing routes with another player off screen. But that's essentially it. There's, again, not a lot to the composition. It looks beautiful. It looks very simple, clean. Things are well proportioned.

So we'll talk about each of these elements individually here in a second. But first, we have to acknowledge just the entire composition. the entire announcement as being a direct response and a huge flex to something that Jay Cole and Drake said in first person shooter, the song that started or reignited this beef that kicked everything off that Kendrick responded to and like that. That song begins like this. Numro you and no, me and just hear this shit like the Super Bowl. Man, this shit done the big is the Big as the what? Big as the Super Bowl, but the difference is it's just two guys playing shit that they did in the studio.

Okay, so we have J. Cole and Drake flexing that they're big, big as the what, big as the Super Bowl. Both of them say it. And so Kendrick, to come back by himself, announced that he's actually playing the Super Bowl, the thing that they're comparing themselves to, but haven't played themselves, is just pretty incredible. So that on its own is just good night. I mean, that is the nail in the coffin. It brings it all full circle. Of course, there's a lot more we're going to go into,

but it does beg the question, though, could Kendrick have known, or at least have been in talks with JZ slash the NFL for the Super Bowl appearance during the battle before the battle? Could he have known that he had the possibility to play the Super Bowl? Had it been confirmed and they were waiting for the traditional announcement, of the Super Bowl Act, which is traditionally announced, at least in recent years, for my research on the first day of the NFL season, which is what they did this last Sunday.

So I did just a little research on this, and it does seem very likely that Kendrick would have known, or at least known he was in the running for it during this. It seems like these things are planned out. I read one article that it said, like, more than a year in advance that they start planning for not only the artist, but also like scouting the location, planning the performance. These things are done in like well, well in advance. So it does stand a reason that Kendrick would have known or at least had some idea that this wouldn't be a possibility.

So Kendrick kind of just got lucky though, I think, in that they said the Super Bowl thing in the back of his mind. He's like, well, I actually might be playing the Super Bowl and then the cards pan out that way. And so it sets up this incredible opportunity. which I think he executed brilliantly, very subtly, of course, but pretty much anyone following the beef understood the significance of doing this as a response to first-person shooter.

So that's just kind of the base level of this announcement, right? Is that response, that flex. But now let's dig into the individual elements of the composition, starting with the biggest thing on the screen, which is the American flag. It's the first thing that we see. Kendrick is pretty small in the frame in relation to this huge. huge American flag. So what's cool about this ad in general is that it works on a surface level for the average person as a Super Bowl announcement. You wouldn't kind of think anything other than

this is a kind of artsy football ad with an American flag and someone practicing football. And it works as just a plain announcement. But each of these elements have several layers that if you've been following Kendrick this year, all all allude to this battle that he's had with Drake. And if you've been following Kendrick throughout the battle, you know that he has not been speaking except through his art. So he's not on IG, he's not on Twitter, he's not commenting on anything, he's only communicating through his art. And this is another small art piece that he is responding to Drake in a number of ways and kind of winking at the audience, especially the Kendrick fans that have been following the battle very closely. So the American flag, aside from the surface

level of acknowledging that the Super Bowl is this huge American event, I would consider it a national holiday at this point. So it plays into that. But of course, if you've been following the Drake beef, a big angle that Kendrick took was, was Drake as an outsider, as a foreigner, as a Canadian, as an outsider to the culture, an outsider and colonizer exploiting an American art form for his own advantage.

So Kendrick has been playing this card throughout the entire beef. He performed at the pop-out concert on June. another American holiday. He released the Not Like Us video on the 4th of July. Of course, American Independence Day. That video had a red, white, and blue color motif running through it. If for some reason you're listening to this episode and haven't heard our Not Like Us analysis, I would definitely more than this episode, go listen to that one where we break down the song, but also the video and all the symbolism in there. And so the American flag pretty obvious that that's playing into this motif that Kendrick is well. woven through this entire battle. So it works on that level, but there's a deeper symbolism here when you understand what Kendrick and Dayfrey are referencing. So there's a pretty famous film called Patton that was released in 1970. It was a pretty huge movie at the time.

It won seven Academy Awards. It was co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It was huge movie. And it's in the pantheon of American kind of classic films. So Patton, the film, opens. with a pretty iconic and famous monologue given by General Patton to his troops before they invaded France and World War II. If you don't know who General Patton was, he was a very famous war general, probably one of the most famous war generals in history, obviously very decorated,

had a film made after him, obviously pretty important in the American kind of war iconography. And so this film opens with an iconic scene and an iconic speech that's known as, Americans love a winner. So in the film, in the opening scene, we see Patton give this famous speech based on a real speech he gave to the troops before invading France. And in the movie, we see a gigantic American flag framed, almost exactly like it's framed in Kendrick's Super Bowl ad. He's very small in the frame, just like Kendrick is small in the frame. And it's just the full frame is this enormous American flag. and when it zooms in on General Patton, it's the same red and white stripes, bold, huge behind him, just like it is in the Kendrick ad.

And so let's listen to a few clips from this speech in the film. I'm going to kind of cut it up and just kind of play you segments of the speech that's pretty long. And as we're listening, just think about Drake versus Kendrick as being the battle and General Patton kind of speaking to Kendrick's side of the beef in this war, this hip-hop war. I want you to remember that no bastard ever won war by dying for his country. You want it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ballplayers, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner.

and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans. We're not just going to shoot the bastard.

We're going to cut out their living guts, and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy hun bastards by the bushel. All right. So within the context of the Kendrick and Drake battle, it's pretty on the nose, right? Some highlights of the speech, he says, No bastard won a war dying for his country.

He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. So dying for Canada versus Kendrick not dying for America to win. He says, Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser Americans play to win all the time. Of course, Kendrick the American, has won. And then as it applies to the aftermath of the beef, where Kendrick has, with the pop-out show with the Not Like Us video, and now this Super Bowl appearance and ad, kind of spitting on his grave, so to speak.

And so Patton also alludes to this. He says that he feels sorry for the loser because, quote, we're not just going to shoot the bastard, we're going to cut out their living guts and use it to grease the treads of our tanks. So obviously there's the same kind of, we're not just going to win. We're going to actually kind of, yeah, we're going to do damage even after we won. We're not just satisfied with the win. And then here's the kicker. So at the end of the very end of the speech, here's what Patton says.

And remember the location of where Kendrick is going to be performing at the Super Bowl. There's one thing that you man will be able to see. say when you get back home and you may thank God for it. 30 years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asked you what did you do in the Great World War II? You won't have to say, well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana. So at least in my mind, very cool Easter egg. We get a nod to Louisiana, the same location.

Kendrick's going to be performing. at the Super Bowl. So the reference is very clear. I feel 100% confident in this being an intentional reference for multiple reasons. And it simultaneously references and calls back to Drake's final song in the beef, The Heart Part 6. On that song, he says, quote, I'm a war general, season and preparation. My jacket is covered in medals, honor and decoration. I am a war general So Kendrick is nodding to General Patton, an American, very decorated, famous war general. And kind of flipping that as you do in a battle, which we saw many, many times on both sides in this thing. So it's just another flip on that motif.

And this also ties into Kendrick's role in the ad. He is the one running the routes. He's the coach. He's helping someone practice and learn. the plays, which you can, in the context of this patent theme, you can think of Kendrick as playing the role of a general. A coach on the football team is the closest thing you'd have to a general in the army if you're making that analogy. And even that point is going to be more driven home at the end of the video. So we'll talk more about that. But let's move on to the 50 yard line that

Kendrick is on. So day free, just actually minutes before I hit record on this thing, posted on Instagram a photo, kind of a behind the scenes photo. of this shoot of the ad and it reveals that this was not a football field. This was a set that they created outdoors somewhere. It looked like maybe a big park or something, but they created AstroTurf and the big American flag. It was not on an actual football field, meaning in my mind at least, that this was all the elements are even that much more intentional, including placing Kendrick on the 50-yard line, which to me feels like a subtle but very obvious nod to Drake and push-ups, the first song that Drake released in the battle, and the chorus of that song, he says,

drop and give me 50. So the dynamic actually works perfectly within this motif of the ad, because Drake is saying drop and give me 50, which is what either a trainer or a military drill sergeant would say to a soldier or their trainee. And so Drake, again, playing this role of superior, that Kendrick is this little guy with a size seven shoe, drop and give me 50, I'm above you, I'm a bigger star than you. And now, Kendrick is flipping that. He's at the 50 yard line. It's a wink to that song, to that hook. And now Kendrick is the one in the power position, very subtly, of course, but he's the one running the place. He's the one that has the routes. And so just putting him on the 50 yard line, just another kind

of chef's kiss detail. If you know, you know, it's a wink at the audience, who knows. So very clever there. And then finally, let's talk about the jug machine, the auto football thrower that Kendrick is using. This is where we're definitely getting into conspiracy theory territory. I don't know if I buy this, but I've seen a couple people mention it online. I did some research around it. I'm on the fence. Well, actually, let's talk it through and then I'll tell you what I think about it. So if you listen to the sound of the jug machine, which I'll play you in a second, some people have been speculating that it sounds similar to the mysterious and unsolved sound in the beginning of 616 in L.A., which was Kendrick.

Instagram disc track against Drake the same day that Family Matters and Meet the Grams drop. There's IG exclusive. So people like myself, people online have been trying to figure out what this mysterious sound is in the beginning of 616 in LA that plays for like 10 seconds on its own. Let's hear a bit of that right now. Okay, so mysterious sound, to my knowledge, no one has really convincingly cracked the code on this sound, but it's so apparent, it's so long in the beginning of the song, and knowing Kendrick, it just has to mean something, it has to reference something.

And again, no one's really cracked the case. But now let's hear the jug machine. Let's play them back to back, unedited, 616, and then I'll play you the jug machine sound from the ad. There you go. Give me one more. Okay, so unaltered. you could see where like people are thinking that it could be similar. What we hear on 616 in LA feels like it's been altered.

How it's been altered depends on what the original source was, but it does feel like maybe a little bit detuned. Some of the high end is cut off. Again, it's hard to know without the source, what kind of effects they're putting on it. But I did do like I didn't spend too much time on this. I spent about five minutes putting different effects on the jug machine sound in the Super Bowl ad.

just to show you that you could get it closer to what you hear in 616 in LA. It's not exact, obviously, but it will show you that you can get it kind of close to that sound, how close that's going to be up to you. Also, what you hear in 616 is like it feels like it's looped. It's like the, it's kind of like that static noise and there's like a clicking sound. And so what I did to recreate that is I created a loop where I got the jug sound. When the jug machine throws the ball, there's a clicking sound. and so I kind of just cut it off right when that clicking sound started.

And so you get that same looped effect. So here's my quick and dirty little recreation. So I don't know. It's definitely not the same source. It could be a jug machine on 616 in LA. That would assume that Kendrick knew that he was playing the Super Bowl, that he was going to announce it in this way with the ad. So he would have had the ad already created,

or at least conceptualized on some level, and then put that sound in the beginning of 616 in LA. I'm not sure I buy it. I kind of went back and forth. It seems like a lot of things would need to add up perfectly. I just don't know if you'd be thinking that far ahead to have a jug machine in the announcement video already planned and then like think to, I don't know.

It's Kendrick, so you just never know. But I kind of landed on probably not the sound, maybe, but probably not. Another detail, though, if you're if you're buying that theory, is that Louisiana, the abbreviation for Louisiana is L.A. So 616 and L.A. would, of course, work for Los Angeles, but if you're playing into this theory, it would also double as 616 in Louisiana. And I did look this up just in case, but traditionally Super Bowl start anywhere between 618 and 631, I think, Eastern time. So 616 in L.A. would be like close to that. again, probably not, but just throwing shit out there for you.

This is the kind of stuff I do for normal episodes, and I'll kind of edit what I put in and out based on what I believe. Probably would have excluded this, but this is more informal. So giving you everything I kind of thought through. So let's now get to the actual ad itself. We're going to hear the first 25 seconds where Kendrick is using the jug machine to throw the balls to this off-screen player. So let's listen to that. We'll talk about it.

There you go. Give me one more. Ah. Come on. Two more. Just like that. You ready? Exactly.

All right. So the first 30 seconds or so, Kendrick just running through these plays with this unseen player, using the jug machine, kind of motivating him and throwing a total, in this section, a total of four shots. So there's a total number of four shots. shots we're going to all save till the end, but that I definitely think is significant. But the way that

he spaces them out could allude to the battle itself. So again, if we're thinking in this motif of this double motif of football and military, those are the two established motifs of this ad, right? And the military one is very subtle and it's like more of a deep cut for people like us that kind of know what's going on beyond the surface level. So, You think of these throws as shots, shot playing into the rap battle, back and forth with the songs, and shots on a military battlefield, and throws are shots in football. So it works on that level. And if you're thinking that these shots allude to the beef, there's definitely a case to be made that there is.

I don't know how far it goes. I think the overall number of shots definitely alludes to it. But what I'm about to lay out is definitely more of a theory that I'm kind of convinced on but I'll let you decide what you feel about it. So these first four shots come as a group, and we're going to see two more shots, but they're spaced out. So the first four shots could correlate to the main points

or shots fired in the battle between Drake and Kendrick. So shot number one was Euphoria versus Push-Ups. Shot number two was Taylor Made and 616 in L.A. Shot number three, or maybe we call these like round. three family matters versus meet the grams and then shot number four was not like us in heart part six so if you're just looking at the week of the battle it spanned about a week and within that week both kendrick and drake fired four shots at each other each so if you're trying to correlate

these shots in the video or in the super bowl ad to the battle that would be it i think so let's move on we'll listen to the next 30 seconds of the super bowl ad and then we'll talk about it what to do I'm named Kendrick Lamar and I'll be performing at Super Bowl 59. Will you be pulling up? I hope so. You know there's only one opportunity to win the championship. No round tools. Let's get it! Boom!

I won't want you to miss it. Meet me in New Orleans. February 9, 2005. Wear your best dress too, even if you're watching from home. watching from home. Let's go. All right, so we hear Kendrick do the kind of formal announcement that he's playing Super Bowl. He says, will he be pulling up? I hope so. And then we get the very direct line, which really tells us that this is also doubles as talking about the Drake battle. He says, you know, there's only one opportunity to win a championship, no round twos. So this is a direct

response to Drake. It's very obvious. And this is what kind of clues this in that there's more to this add than what meets, you know, the initial I. And so for those that don't know, Drake recently opened a secondary Instagram account called Plot Twist, which was kind of made public in tandem with this project. He's calling 100 gigs, which was like folders upon folders of like video archive footage, old songs, reference tracks, a bunch of just Drake content. And so he started posting a lot on this plot twist account. And on August 26th, he posted a story on the plot twist. Instagram account of Rashid Wallace, an NBA player, proclaiming this kind of old viral video of Rashid Wallace after a playoff loss to the Lakers, L.A. Lakers, essentially guaranteeing that

the Pistons were going to win game two. So let's hear that video that Drake posted. Y'all put it in the front page, back page, middle page, wherever. Headliners, column one or two, we will win game two. We will win game two. Okay, so between the LA Lakers connection and Kendrick in L.A. And Drake essentially admitting that he lost this battle with Kendrick, alluding to the fact that he's kind of gearing up for a round two and that he's not going to lose. DJ Academics tweeted the same thing that morning, something about round two.

DJ academics has been kind of Drake's mouthpiece for years now. And so there was momentum and rumors kind of starting with this video that Drake was gearing up for a second round. Drake has also been releasing songs lately, kind of these throwaway songs. One was called Sarcadian Rhythms, which is a nod to 616 in L.A. where Kendrick says he moves in Sarcadian rhythms. And also on the song, No Face that he released. We're going to play the clip here, but essentially he talks about kind of gearing up and preparing for this next round. So let's hear that.

I don't get sleepy off, no melatonin. My therapist put in a 30-day notice because I keep on talking about beefing and business and money and women. and there's no diagnosis. They empty the clip. Quick. Swat that shit out and I came back reloading. I'm just so happy that niggas who envy to hell that shit and got to finally show it. I'm over the moon.

Yeah, we'll see you, boy, soon. I'm spreading my wings. I hop out of a cocoon. I'm studio trapping. I'm locked in the room. All right. So, Drake's doing what Drake does, sending subliminals, essentially saying he's reloading the clip. He says, we'll see you boy soon.

I'm spreading my wings. I hop out. I'm trapped in the studio. I'm locked in the room. So essentially saying I'm in the studio. I'm preparing for battle. reloading the clip. And so between this song and the Rashid Wallace video, people have been speculating that he's gearing up for round two. So Kendrick's saying there's only one shot to win a

championship, no round two is he is directly saying, I am not engaging you. I'm over it. I'm moving on. He's going to allude to that again at the end of the video. But it's very clear Kendrick has been watching. He sees what's going on. He responds directly in the Super Bowl ad, which is again kind of a flex. So after he says that, he says, let's get it. And then he throws another football, takes another shot with the Juggs machine. And so this shot, interestingly, is spaced out from the first four. The first four were essentially back to back. This one he talked through, essentially there's a break between this and the first four.

So if we're playing into this theory that he is alluding to the beef with these shots, this would make sense because there was a break between not like us and Hart Part 6. and then the next event in the beef, which was the pop-out show, which happened a little over a month after the battle on June 10th. And so there was a gap between the pop-out show and the battle, and there's a gap between this shot and the previous four shots. So if you're buying the theory, it does correlate. If you're not buying the theory, okay, that's fine. So moving on, the next thing he says is Meet Me in New Orleans, gives the date. And then he says, wear your best dress to, even if you're watching from home.

So again, it's one of those things. Why would he say that? It's kind of weird. So I'm definitely going to speculate here. There's a few kind of thoughts that I had about it. If he was talking to Drake directly, it would be a shot at him posting selfies of his outfits, which he does regularly and he did during the battle.

And so Drake watching from home, which he's definitely going to watch from home. He's kind of teasing Drake that you'll be watching from home. I'm going to be performing at the Super Bowl. You can post your little outfit. Seems like a little jab. I'm not sure if I buy that, but that would be my interpretation if he's still talking directly to Drake. But what I thought of, what a few people have sent me, what I've seen online, is that people were speculating, including myself, that he was referencing a funeral.

So wearing your best dress, what you'd wear to church, what you'd wear to a funeral ceremony, essentially alluding to the fact that this is going to be the nail in the coffin, he's going to be dancing on his grave. essentially we're going to watch Drake's funeral, 50 million or 100 million, however many watch the Super Bowl around the world, are all going to be attending Drake's funeral, even if you're watching from home, so where you're best. And this is interesting because, again, this is speculation, but let's think about where he's performing at the Super Bowl in New Orleans. And in New Orleans, they have what are called jazz funerals. They're pretty famous for this. These are kind of more vibrant, jubilant celebrations. They are accompanied by a brass band.

It starts out kind of mournful. It's a parade essentially. There's a first line, a second line, and it's a parade through the streets. It starts out mournful. By the end of the ceremony, it's more celebratory, celebrating the life after death. And so if you're buying the fact that he's alluding to a funeral and he's performing in New Orleans, there's a possibility that he's alluding to the fact that this is going to be a New Orleans jazz funeral themed. halftime performance, which would definitely make sense within the context of this battle.

If he's playing not like us at the Super Bowl, if he's doing this general patent thing of like, we're going to not only kill you, we are going to stomp on your grave, we're going to use your guts as tread on our tires, like it plays into all of that perfectly. And if you remember from our previous episodes that funerals have definitely been a motif in this battle. So in first person shooter, Jay Cole says, First person shooter mode,

returning your song to a funeral. This is in the beginning of the song. And then Kendrick responded to that line saying on like that, his feature verse that kicked this whole thing off. He says, talking out the next, don't pull no coffin out your mouth.

So he's playing on the funeral thing, flipping that as you do in a battle, say, watch what you say, or I'm going to demolish you, I'm going to kill you. and that's what happened. And there's this possibility that Drake will be kind of formally stepping on the grave at the Super Bowl. And even if he doesn't do that, it's like, I've seen online, people are already interpreting this as that.

Like, there's no need for Kendrick to kind of rub it in anymore, but he is. And maybe he wouldn't if Drake had kind of kept his mouth shut. But obviously he felt the need to continue this thing. And so we'll see how that pans out. But that was my best guess on what that could allude. two. And then after he says that, he says, let's go and he fires the sixth and the final shot out of the Juggs machine. So we have a total of six shots. So even if you're not buying the theory that this correlates to the, to the events in the battle, six shots is just fucking obvious. Six is

the six god, running through the six with my woes. It's, that's Drake's number. Of course, he's taking six shots at the six gods. So that to me is obvious. He also played Not Like Us six times at the pop-out concert. That's definitely intentionally. Technically he played. He performed the song five times and then he walked out to the instrumental playing for the sixth time. That was definitely intentional.

And so I think he repeated that pattern here. But also with the six and final shot, if we're correlating it to the events in the battle, we had the four shots representing the the meat of the battle in that week there was a space pop-out concert then there was another space and then there was kendrick's final kind of offering in the battle which was the not like us video which again published on july fourth independence day about a month after june 10th so if you're buying the theory that these shots are are kind of representing the battle it does literally pans out perfect there's four there's a space, there's one, there's a space, there's one for a total of six,

and it correlates directly to the timeline of the battle, and specifically Kendrick's shots at Drake. So I think that's a thing. I buy it. I definitely buy the six total shots being symbolic, and that one's kind of obvious to me, but I do feel like they correlate pretty perfectly with the events in the battle, down to the spaces between them.

So I wouldn't put it past that being intentional, not as sold as it being definite as the, the six, but I'm pretty sold on that being intentional. All right, let's listen to the final portion of the ad, and we'll talk about the ending. Yay! So I'm talking about, man. Now we can get to it, for real. Come on, you gotta, you gotta make sure you catch him with the hands open like that.

We're running real routes. You're gonna be messing up. Okay, so it seems like the guy caught the last, the sixth pass correctly. Because Kendrick says, that's what I'm talking about, man. He's talking to the player now for the rest of the video directly. he says now we can get to it for real. Come on, you've got to make sure you catch it with the hands open like that. We run in real routes.

You're going to be messing up. So it seems to me that he's talking to Drake here. So again, in this motif of military football battle, Kendrick is in the coach position, the drill sergeant position, the trainer position. He's teaching someone these plays. Obviously, this player needed practice. running these routes. And Kendrick's saying, you're going to mess it up.

That's why we're here practicing essentially, right? And Kendrick is teaching him the routes. So this to me is commenting on Drake's lack of strategy and Kendrick's superior strategy in the battle. And Kendrick kind of showing him, hey, I know what I'm doing. This announcement is another play in my strategy. I am miles ahead of you. You're still on Instagram.

You're still taking subtle subliminals and these throwaway songs. You're posting little Instagram. stories. I'm operating on a totally different level. I'm playing at the Super Bowl and I'm responding to you in a nationally circulated video that is announcing me playing at the biggest event in America. Yeah, Kendrick is running the place. He's calling the shots here and he's teaching Drake how to do this thing. But what's really interesting is how this correlates to the theme of the second half of 616 in LA, which is all about Kendrick playing mind games with Drake and telling him that he's not being strategic enough that he's got moles in his camp, he's on IG, he's playing the meme

game, he's got Twitter bots, and he's focusing on all the wrong things, whereas Kendrick is being more strategic and he's plotting in advance and essentially calling Drake out for not being strategic enough. So let's listen to that portion of the song. We'll talk about it a little bit more. Let me tell you some game because I can see you, my little homie. You're playing dirty with propaganda. He'd blow up on you. You're playing nerdy with Zach Beah and Twitter. But your reality can't hide behind Wi-Fi. Your little memes is losing steam. They figured you out.

The forced opinions is not convincing. I need a new route. It's time that you look around on who's around you. Before you figure that you're not alone, ask what Mike would do. Okay, so he says, your little memes are losing steam. They figured you out. The forced opinions is not convincing. Y'all need a new route.

So at the risk of emphasizing that line too much, you can make the case that, he's kind of calling back to that, or at least calling back to Drake's lack of strategy. And again, Kendrick being the superior, the drill sergeant, the coach, teaching him the routes. And everything he said in 616 still applies because Drake is doing the 100 gigs, Finstagram, plot twist account. He's trying to respond with memes. He's trying to respond with these subliminal throwaway songs. And again, Kendrick is operating on this totally higher level, not saying shit, except

in its art, except in these huge pieces, including the music video, including the pop-out show, and now the Super Bowl announcement, these lyrics still apply, those little memes, losing steam, you need a new route, and here I am teaching you the routes in my Super Bowl ad. So that to me is very clear, and he also says, now we can get to it for real. So that to me, and I saw people thinking the same thing online, seems to allude to the album. We know, I mean, we're pretty sure there's an album coming. will it come in February? Will we get it sooner? Not sure, but I think he's definitely alluding that all this was practice. This battle with Drake was good practice, but the real thing is going to be

the album that he releases, and then that's probably going to correlate into the Super Bowl in some way. He'll definitely be performing some of those songs at the Super Bowl. So we can only wait and see what happens with the album with the performance and how this might correlate. But he's definitely alluding to stuff. But overall, I think this ad only kind of cementes my opinion of why Kendrick could engage in this battle in the first place. If you listen to my Not Like Us episode, I kind of made the case that he engaged in this battle, partly because Drake was a symbol of the ways in which hip hop have kind of become untangled from its roots. It's like this global phenomenon. There's a lot of players, and it's kind of gotten away

from its roots. And you can kind of view Drake as the kind of the biggest symbol of that, right? of a foreigner, someone kind of cosplaying, purporting to be someone that they're not using classic hip-hop tropes to their own advantage. We think of the Not Like Us third verse, the colonizing Atlanta thing. And again, Drake being the biggest symbol of an outsider, feeling like they have ownership over this culture that Kendrick really loves, really respects and values the history of, and people moving, including Drake, in a way that doesn't respect that culture and the history there as much as they could. So the American flag, the general patent motif, all these things are kind of playing into that nationalism, hip-hop being a black

American art form and Kendrick snatching the crown, so to speak, from this imposter, this foreigner, and restoring it to not just himself, but his people, his community, specifically the West Coast, but I think with the American flag, and he's kind of saying this is a black American art form, and it's ours, you're not like us, and we're restoring the crown where it should be. So this Super Bowl ad to me plays perfectly within that theme and is very consistent with that theme, and it's also very consistent with what Kendrick said in the official statement that he made with this press release about his announcement of playing at the Super Bowl, he said, quote, rap music is still the most impactful genre to date, and I'll be there to remind the world why.

They got the right one. So again, they got the right one. It plays into everything I just talked about. It's Kendrick. He is a representative of the history. He comes from the culture. He's from the West Coast. He's from America.

It's the only right that he's going to show the world, just like he did at the pop-out show, where rap music comes from, the people that created it, and he's going to put, I have no doubt my mind that what we saw at the pop-out show on some level will be represented at the Super Bowl. Kendrick is going to take this opportunity to showcase members of his community in the same way that he did at the pop-out show and for the whole entire world to see and remind people where this art form came from that he says is the most impactful genre to date. Him having the microphone, being the spokesperson for this community, I have no doubt my mind that that's going to be some element, probably a large element of the Super Bowl show. I'm very excited to see what he does.

I'm very excited for the album. How it all unfolds, only time will tell. But thank you for listening. I think I went over 30 minutes, but whatever. If you're still listening, thank you. Let me know if I missed anything. Hit me up on at Dissect podcast, on socials. I'm working on the next season of Dissect. It should be out October, November. And if you're listening to this episode, especially to the end, you're definitely going to like the artist and album that it's on. Thank you again. I'll talk to you guys soon.