Dissect - Kendrick Lamar's Great American Game (Super Bowl Reaction)

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

Dissect host Cole Cuchna shares his initial thoughts and analysis on Kendrick Lamar's Halftime performance at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everyone to a special episode of Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. This is an emergency instant reaction episode on Kendrick Lamar's fantastic Super Bowl performance tonight. It is 8.22 p.m. As I record this, I've watched the performance three times. And I'm going to share with you my instant reaction. There's going to be some analysis. Obviously, not a complete dissection, but I do feel like I have a pretty good idea of what the performance was. And I am just incredibly. impressed. Let me just start there. As a representative artist of this generation, you know, I think these moments are very special and especially considering what he did. I mean, this was an artist performance. This was pure artistry on display for the entire world. And he made some very calculated decisions to make it what I feel like is an artistic presentation and not just playing the hits. I think that was so much of what this performance was about. The lack of hits was calculated. He's going to get backlash for it in some circles. I am totally convinced that the masses were probably very much confused with this performance, and that is one of the reasons why I love it. So I'm going to start this with

just some general thoughts about the performance, and then I'm going to just go through each song a little bit. Again, this is not going to be a complete analysis. I might do another analysis-driven episode if I feel like there's enough after this episode to cover as I continue to dissect it and analyze it this week. But again, I do feel like I have a pretty good understanding, at least like the general idea of it. So I came into this, of course, speculating what he was going to do. I thought the obvious play, what I think a lot of people thought what he was going to do was a marching band of sub-sort. You think of New Orleans and you think of the horn of Not Like Us and TV off and it's like you that just seemed like an automatic and of course he

didn't do it right and there's even the marching band in the teaser commercial for the Super Bowl and he didn't do any he didn't have any marching band whatsoever um and so that was something I noticed right away and it tied into this larger aesthetic of the show which was very much PG Lang you know PG Lang produces this whole thing but we had to haven't seen a Super Bowl show like this. It was so minimal in its production. I mean, the production was grand, but in that PG-Lang minimalistic way. Everything was very clean, clean line, very calculated color skiing. I think there was only three colors in this entire show, which we'll talk about. And that's something that really struck me right away was just how minimalistic the aesthetic was,

which is just not the obvious choice for the Super Bowl. And that is, that is, that is, one among many choices that were what is not the obvious choice for the Super Bowl, which is going to be a theme as we talk about this performance. So another thing that stuck out was the lack of features. You know, there's speculation of Tyler. I was guilty of speculating that. People were thinking about Janet Jackson perhaps making a feature. There's a bunch of speculation about who we'd bring out.

I thought for sure there'd be some like L.A. rappers on stage with him. but this was all about Kendrick aside from Siza which we'll talk about but this was I mean the thing that was crossing my mind throughout the whole thing was man at the garden and I deserve it all and Kendrick really just taking this moment for himself I mean it was a very Kendrick centered show but Kendrick as we're going to talk about is a symbol of Los Angeles he's also a symbol of pure culture, pure hip hop culture. And that more than anything was what was on display at this Super Bowl performance. And so the lack of features, again, no marching band.

He just, he didn't do the obvious stuff. And that brings us to the set list, which again, I think is going to cause some controversy because he didn't play that many hits and he only went as far back as damn. There was no morale. There was no Tipinpa butterfly. there is no good kid mad city that is a choice that is a very intentional choice the easy thing to do would be to play the hits would be money trees it would be mad city all right uh you know name your billion stream song and he just he did humble but there's a purpose to that as we'll talk about

but for the most part this was g and x and the battle and the battle if you've been if you've been listening to my episodes on the battle since very early on, I was very adamant about the battle being a symbol for something larger. Kendrick was trying to say about culture, about hip hop, and the purity of it, and where it is today, and what he's trying to bring it back to. And I think this entire performance was a continuation of that theme that he's been developing for the last six months with everything from the battle to GNX. But let's just not gloss over the fact that this is a wild set list for a Super Bowl performance. Like it is actually pretty wild.

And it tells me that he had complete creative control over this thing because I don't think any producer from the outside will look at this set list and approve it. Because it's, it just, it really is like a very rebellious, I guess would be the word to use. I don't know. It was just a very calculated, and he's way too smart to know that this would be caused some backlash. Like the masses are just going to be confused at this performance. And again, I think that's kind of the point. So let's just go ahead and walk through the entire performance, and I'll kind of give you my initial reactions and my kind of lingering thoughts now that I'm kind of thinking about what this all means. So he starts out with the GNX on stage, and it's just a single spotlight. It's so cool. And he plays an unreleased song.

His first song at the Super Bowl with millions of people watching around the world. He plays an unreleased song. That is insane. But for Kendrick Diehard's, of course, this is not an entirely new song. This was the song that was in the GNX trailer that dropped about 30 minutes before GNX came out. and this song, which is being called Bodies or Tiramisu, was not on GNX. This, of course, started speculation that there might be a part two to GNX or a deluxe.

But in any case, he plays this unreleased song, and he plays an extended version of it, so we get more lyrics that we didn't hear in the original snippet. Oh, and of course, I'm forgetting the introduction. So let me back up just for a second here. So the first thing that we see is this, like, kind of loading. I think it's playing on like PlayStation video game like loading. That's in the stands. It's like a loading bar to 100%.

And below you see square, a circle, X, and a triangle, which I think are PlayStation buttons or some kind of game console buttons. And then we cut to a shot of Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, saying, welcome to the great American game. And so this very clearly sets up the theme. the story of this performance, which is based on a football game being America's game, but also Kendrick talking about America at large and the game of the American dream,

we might say, the game of assimilating into American culture, particularly as a black person. I think that was a very clear through line through this thing, the assimilation of black Americans into popular culture and all the compromising. that one might need to make to do so. That is, seems like something he was really driving home throughout the performance, as we'll talk about with the other kind of skits, um,

that Samuel L. Jackson, uh, as Uncle Sam and the things that he says pretty much point to this, uh, theme. And so between the game console and what he says there, and it's this all, again,

all this play on America's game of football. Um, and also Kendrick playing this game of this performance. I think that is part of it too. because he's going to kind of taunt not like us and like, should I play the game? Should I play the hits? And him essentially saying that I'm not playing any games.

I'm not playing the game anymore. And I'm just going to be authentically me, which again goes back to the track list, goes back into him not doing a bombastic version of the Super Bowl show. He's not playing the game. And there's also the game of the battle, which we'll talk about towards, the end of the performance, which is, again, this larger symbol that Kendrick has been using

for the last handful of months. So we get the GNX trailer. And when it ramps up into the aggressive part of the song, we start to see all the dancers coming out of the GNX, which I thought was just so cool. There's no way all those dancers fit in the GNX. So I'm not sure how they pulled off that illusion. I'll need to go back and really watch. But it was just cool to see them all piling out. And of course, they're wearing red, white, and blue. And these are obviously the primary colors of the entire performance. I need to go back and really look, but I think that's the only colors in this entire

performance is strictly red, white, and blue, which is so PG-Lang to hone in on a color palette and just nail that aesthetic. Because even the floors were white, right? They covered the green of the football field with like a stark white. like a mat thing, which is, we'll talk about that when we get there. But anyways, that's a very intentional choice. I thought that was a very effective. And of course, red, white, and blue plays into the American theme, but it's also Bloods and Crips and the union of those colors, which Kendrick has been playing with, with the popout show, um, with Dodger blue, wearing all red at

the pop out, wearing all blue and squabble up. And then wearing purple in the Super Bowl, uh, promo picture, which I thought was a pretty clear play on the harmony of red and blue and the Union of the West and specifically LA, which he's now been on record, as saying that is something he's been trying to do. So it was a very Kendrick Lamar, PG-Lang, day-free type of opening sequence because they essentially lay out the entire show, the central theme of the show within the first however many seconds of the performance. And it's all set up right there for us. And I do actually think this is we're going to talk about this in acts and i think there is three acts and so we're in the first act which i'm just kind of arbitrarily calling the great america game oh and before we go any

further we should probably acknowledge what kendrick was wearing which was this beautiful custom martin rose leather jacket which is kind of i think kind of like a varsity jacket it had a really cool pg lang logo on the back and in the front it said gloria as if it were like a team name like a varsity name. And of course, this points to the last track on GNX, Gloria being the name for his pen, his, is what he writes with. And it was kind of an ode homage to his relationship with writing throughout his entire career since he was a little kid. And so I thought that was a pretty cool little Easter egg on the jacket and kind of signaling to, you know, what brought him to this stage, to the biggest stage on earth. It was all because of Gloria, because of his pen. And obviously

Gloria, Glory has some spiritual themes as well. So I thought that was cool. Easter egg. Also, people have been pointing out as chain, which is first and foremost a PG-Lang chain. It's a lowercase A. And if you look at the PG-Lang logo, it is literally the A from the PG-Lang logo.

But in the context of this performance and not like us, it kind of doubles. The chain itself is a double entendre because it's A minor. And it's a lowercase A. which is how you write A minor. So whether that's intentional, I'm sure it's a Pigealing chain first, but that meaning's not lost on Kendrick.

Come on. So after Squabble up, we get another Uncle Sam kind of interlude thing. And Uncle Sam says to Kendrick, this is to ghetto, essentially is the gist of what he says to him. He literally says the word ghetto, which is obviously very coded,

and he tells Kendrick that he needs to tighten up. So this coming from Uncle Sam is obviously very layered. This is him, saying, essentially saying you're being too black. And this is America's game. We think of Collard Kaepernick and the history there. We think of just the general public watching the game right now. Like literally, he's getting ahead of the critique almost,

and that they're not going to respect the song like Squabble Up or the Tiramisu. And essentially playing this kind of meta game with the audience, who is themselves probably some of them thinking, this is too ghetto, right? or this is too black or I don't like this. This is America's game. We need American hits, which is all very coated coming from Uncle Sam. So Kendrick's response is playing Humble.

So this is, you know, it kind of walks the line because obviously Humble is one of his biggest songs. And then the red, blue, and white dancers form an American flag. And Kendrick stands in the center, which feels like a statement. humble is also not a humble song. The point of that song is all ego and braggadocio. And this transitions pretty quickly into DNA. And all these are very like rap-centric songs, right? I can't remember if I said at the top.

But Kendrick came here to rap. There are not hooks in this entire performance except by Siza, which we'll talk about. But he picked songs and he picked parts of songs where he is just rapping, which I think is so, central and important to keep reemphasizing how much he's actually wrapping on a Super Bowl stage. So when he reforms DNA, he switches kind of sets. I can't remember what shape they were on in the beginning. I think it was a square. Anyways, but they transitioned from that set onto like the longer

it's essentially a street. There's street lights. And so it's essentially a Compton Street, which is also kind of doubling as a field in this game motif. And I imagine it was a literal football field for Kendrick as a kid playing football in the street as kids do. So I think that was that was all layered within this just, I mean, it's just a pure white strip, right? But had so much symbolic meaning in this minimalistic kind of structure. But this is the first time we're introduced to this street. And then he plays euphoria.

When I heard the horns of euphoria come on, I was absolutely ecstatic. I never in a million years would I thought Kendrick Lamar would play euphoria at the Super Bowl in front of millions of white people. That's like that is crazy. Please acknowledge how crazy that is. Again, any producer outside of PG-Lang looking at this set list is like horrified. Like, what is euphoria? It's not even on an album. But so that was maybe one, I mean, definitely my top three, uh, songs on the set. Maybe it's got to be first. Let me just say it's my favorite song that he performed because the shock value of it, especially for like hardcore Kendrick fans. I mean, was that on anyone's, like, anyone's like if you're betting on the set list, like, did anyone have euphoria? I thought that was amazing. But again, it's another rap song.

There's not a hook on Euphoria. That was the point of you, a large part of Euphoria was like, let's rap Drake. I'm going to give you six minutes of no hooks. One kind of refrain with, I hate the way you walk, one line that it repeats twice.

If you want to call that a hook or a refrain. Otherwise, it's just six minutes of Kendrick rapping. And just from like an aesthetic, just what he's doing to the camera. I mean, a lot of this performance, I need to go back and watch, but so much of it was just a single handheld camera of someone following Kendrick around. And Kendrick really just being, cut, rapping straight to the camera, not the crowd. And just like almost, I don't know if it's like confrontational, but very immediate, very like in your face, which I think it was part of this too, especially with humble DNA, euphoria, all these kind of very much aggressive songs.

And I should also point out there has been no women on stage yet. This is all the people, all the dancers to this point are all black men, which I think is very intentional and he's going to be very intentional bringing in women with scissors portions. So we transition from the street. Ken just kind of walks us down the street, walks us through Compton essentially or LA, and we're brought to like under a street light. And there's like an acapella rendition of I deserve it all, which just again and not another, not just a totally unpredictable choice or man at the garden sorry not i deserve it all man at the garden

i actually thought like more i thought about trying to predict a set list i actually thought man at the garden might be a cool opener or something he might open the show with uh especially after watching the timothy chalemaine interview where he said that was like the most important thematic song on g and x it was he said there's always one song on an album that kind of defines the album. Probably Mother I Sober off of Mr. Moral. Anyways, he says, man at the garden is what defines G&X to him. Anyways, so he performs this acapella version of it under the street light. I don't know if it totally worked for me. That might be the one spot. I get like kind of like why he did it. But after the brief performance

of it, we see Uncle Sam again. And this has all been act two. I don't know if I said that. So I'm I'm considering this after the two get a remark by Uncle Sam. I'm considering humble DNA, euphoria, and Man at the Garden, part of this act too. And then he comes back. Uncle Sam comes back and he says, I see you brought your homeboys with you. The old cultural cheat code. Scorekeeper deduct one life. So I'm not entirely sure what this means yet because he just performed like a more traditional,

not Kendrick's part, but the backing. a cappella under the street light. And he says old cultural cheat code. So maybe he's saying that that was too easy, like hearkening back to these more traditional, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just going to say, I don't know.

It's been like an hour. So the performance continues with Peekaboo. Another song I just wouldn't have never guessed in a million years. It's one of my favorite. It's probably my favorite song in GNX at this moment. Just another song I would just never have guessed. He was going to perform at the Super Bowl. It gets crazy.

Visually, I thought this was one of the cooler moments. This is where they're on the X stage. They're kind of doing that like 360 kind of panning thing and seeing these different groups in the little pockets of the X. Then shortly after this is when the women come out. This is the part where we get kind of some theatrical elements where he says to the women, I want to make a move. I want to perform their favorite song.

But you know that they love to sue. And then they play a little snippet of Not Like Us. And he said, yeah, that song. And so obviously this is pointing to Drake suing around that for defamation, around that song, and all the speculation leading up to the performance, which Kendrick is acknowledging in this very meta, clever way, if he was going to play it or not, if he was going to censor the lyrics or not. And so he's building that into the very show that we're witnessing, commenting on the actual leading up to the show, which I thought was just really clever and like kind of build suspense.

to the moment that he does actually play it. And of course, he doesn't play it at that moment. Instead, everything kind of slows down and he starts to perform Luther, which is, you know, one of the biggest songs in the country right now. I think it's the only part he lip sang. I don't think he actually sung it because at that point he was walking across the field. And he had to be, I mean, his breath control, he's been like preparing for this. He's talked about how much he's been running to work on his breath.

everything, which I thought was on display throughout all this intense rapping. But to sing Luther while walking, it's the only part of the show, I think he lips sung, which is fine. And of course, this is when he introduces Siza, who gave a great performance as well, not maybe the strongest feature. I don't know. I love Siza. I absolutely love Siza. But they also didn't really set her up in a very grand way. You know, I'm not sure how many people are walking away from the performance. remembering Siza's feature, which is fine. You know, it's Kendrick's show. Anyways, the Luther rendition I thought was nice.

Then they do all the stars, which is not my personal favorite song by any means, but it is just a massive hit. I am always so blown away with how many streams all the stars has. And so this is the only part of the performance that really has melodic hooks that would appease or have a better chance at appeasing White America. I'm generalizing there. essentially, you know, again, just think about your average football consumer, the average audience member, think about your parents, think about, you know, et cetera, et cetera. These are more the types

of songs that they were probably expecting from a Super Bowl performance. And it's really the only part of the show that had any, in my mind, any commercial appeal at all. And I'm talking general mass commercial appeal. And of course, Kendrick, acknowledges it directly because right after Luther, right after all the stars, we get our next Uncle Sam appearance and he says this, quote, that's what I'm talking about. That's what America wants. Nice and calm. We're almost there. Don't mess this up. And so this is Kendrick directly acknowledging the songs that he's playing at the Super Bowl. Like he's doing this meta thing. He's playing the game, acknowledging the game, acknowledging the game within the game. Uh,

acknowledging the politics around his performance, around football in general, around American in general. It's all, all the layers are stacking up. That's what America wants. Nice and calm. That's what America wants from black people, right? Like that's, he's also saying that. And so think about that specific point thematically with not like us. Forget the Drake part. Not like us. Don't mess. He says nice and calm. This is what America wants. Don't mess this up. and not like us is I mean the us and not like us is not just Drake you know it's larger commentary

which Kendrick acknowledges in this the intro to not like us right before he starts to play it proper he says this within this like little like musical interlude thing where he says it's a cultural divide I'm going to get it on the floor and then the women respond

you're really about to do it and he says 40 acres and a mule this is bigger than the music they respond again you're really going to do it so building up this anticipation for not like us and then he says they tried to rig the game but you can't fake influence um and so all this is direct again you can take it as shots at drake but he says this is a cultural divide this is bigger than the music 40 acres than a meal so he's directly acknowledging all the layers here this is not just about drake it's a cultural divide in hip-hop this is a cultural divide in america

this is a historic divide between black and white and the history of this country. He's playing with all that stuff. And again, just to drive the point home, this is all stuff that was already present and not like us in the battle and Drake as a symbol, as a colonizer of the culture, someone that takes directly from it, but Kendrick feels like he's not treating with the respect that someone like him should have for it. and the kind of humility that he should have for as a foreigner,

as that's someone that is not of the culture and is kind of tiptoeing the line between like being a guest and being a part of it proper. And certainly not in the way that Kendrick Lamar feels like he is, born in LA, raised in Section 8 housing, et cetera, et cetera. So all that's in there, not like us, begins proper. And the visuals for this is pretty cool because it's him, walking down the street that is a field that is Compton that is a literal football field all the

layers and he's getting closer and closer and closer to the camera and he's essentially walking us down just like he's he walked down Drake and he's walking us down in this performance and obviously like the million dollar question going into this performance was would he say Drake's name would he do the A minor line would he say pedophile that whole verse was like everyone was kind of waiting to see if he was going to do it. Of course he did it. Of course he did it. I had no doubt. In my mind, he was going to do that. I don't know if I was actually wondering if you'd actually say Drake's name because I think he censored it out of the pop-out show. Did he? Let's get about me. I can't remember it. But I know he's censored it before. I was curious to say if you would say Drake's name. Not only did he say Drake's name, he looked at the camera and smiled while he did it. Of course he said it. Of course he looked at the camera and smiled. He didn't say pedophile. I would guess there are some other sound that came when he said pedophile. Obviously, you just can't say that at the Super Bowl. If he would have said it, one thing to notice about this performance, there was no bleeps. He didn't mess up on, he censored himself

to the point where they didn't have to bleep him out, which is nice. I always bugs me when there's that weird, sudden gap of silence for like three seconds because the performer slipped up and said something. And if you would have said pedophile, they would have definitely censored it out. So I like that he kind of just got ahead of that and just controlled the performance within the constraints that he knew he had.

But he performs that whole thing. And of course, we get to the A minor line and the entire stadium said A minor. And they did a drone shot to show, I think it's spelling out something. That was something I haven't figured out yet. But when they do the drone shot on the A minor line, it looks like the dancers on the field are spelling something out.

I couldn't figure out what it is yet. There's also clips of people in the actual stadium coming out, and you can hear how loud everyone, like literally everyone in the stadiums, yelled the A minor thing. So that's the answer to the question. Did he do it? Yes, he did. And he leaned all the way into it.

We also see during this performance, Serena Williams, briefly on the streets of Compton, doing a little Crip Walk, which is obviously another kind of shot at Drake who used to date Serena Williams, and then went on to like dis her, discommon, and then dis her husband on record several times. So there's the Drake element there. Also Serena Williams,

not as obviously as extreme as a Colin Kaepernick, but you know, she's had some issues with the sports entertainment kind of world. And her personality and her being black, a black woman, strong black woman, has had some issues with the sports world. So I think that was definitely, it's not just a Drake thing. There's layers here, right? And so I think showcasing Serena Williams as a black woman, I thought,

it was really, I mean, it was just a nice touch for just a number of reasons, right? It wasn't just the Drake thing. And Serena Williams, for people that don't know, is from Compton. and she's called out on Not Like Us. So cool to see her there. Then we get to TV Off, which is the finale, started with the second half and the mustard line. You know, if you listen to these lyrics, specifically that verse of TV Off and the second half of the song, it's written for the Super Bowl, like at least a large part of it. He talks about running plays.

There's some like exercise. Some exercise at a football players, I'm forgetting the name. And then the last line of the verse is walk into New Orleans with the etiquette of L.A. yelling mustard. So obviously he was in New Orleans. He knew he was going to perform this song and it ended up being the finale, which I thought was very much appropriate to this game motif. It worked so perfectly to turn your TV off. Think about it in the game motif.

It's, of course, talking to Drake, turn your TV off. But it's also talking to the people watching the Super Bowl. turn your teeth like you don't like this performance i am predicting the backlash i've it's all layered within this performance it's the set list is calculated this is a hip-hop pure rap show i'm bringing rap i'm bringing la i'm bringing the culture to the biggest platform in sports and entertainment the most amount of viewers at any one time and it's going to rub people the wrong way to quote uncle sam this is what america wants nice and clean. Kendrick Lamar purposely gave us, I don't know, unclean is the wrong word, but he gave us a raw rap-centric performance. He brought the literal streets of Compton to the

world, continuing this theme that he's been hitting on since the pop-out show, since the battle. I mean, essentially his entire career, let's be honest, but it's been a very specific way he's been doing this in the last six to eight months. This was just a continuation. It was the pinnacle of it, maybe, or I don't know, the stadium tour is going to be, feels like equally important. But there's only one Super Bowl. This was a huge honor.

And I thought he nailed it. And so we get the final line, turn his TV off, turn his TV off. And then it goes dark. And in the same where we started, which was the loading, the video game loading, it said game over in the stands. And so you can read. that, you know, did Kendrick win the game? Did he lose the game? I think for Kendrick fans, for hip-hop fans, I think he definitely won. I think there will some, there's going to be some

people that think he definitely lost. And if you think that he lost, your version of loss is his version of winning, right? Because he did exactly what he wanted. He didn't succumb to the pressure of playing hits. He didn't succumb to the pressure of making a bombastic more traditional. more culturally appeasing performance. He did exactly what he wanted to do. It felt so very authentic to him, to his community, to hip-hop. As a hip-hop fan, I just,

we have never seen anything like this to this scale, to this degree of how much just rapping there was on the biggest stage. So I think that's the majority of the thoughts that I have at this moment, a couple hours after the show. I'll do some more digging. I'll do some more research. I'm going to watch it obviously a couple more times at least. And if I feel compelled,

if I feel like there's enough to do another episode that goes a little bit deeper, I will definitely do that. If I don't feel like there's enough to do a full episode and I find some stuff, just follow me on Dysect at Dysect podcast and I'll be posting any like Easter eggs or any details that I find cool.

I'll definitely be posting there. Thanks for listening. to this, if you haven't already, check out the first episode of the Mr. Morale season, which we just launched last Tuesday. We started with United in Grief tomorrow, Tuesday, what, Tuesday, February 11th. We'll have the N95 episode. Episodes are releasing every Tuesday for the foreseeable future and their video episodes. I don't know how many people caught that last week. If you're listening on Spotify, you'll see, not this episode, but the scripted episodes proper are now video. If you're listening to this on Apple or anywhere else, it's not video.

You can watch the video on either Spotify or now YouTube. So check those out. Also, hit me up on Instagram or Twitter or whatever, and let me know what you thought of your performance. If whatever I missed, I definitely missed some stuff. Again, recording this just a couple hours afterwards. So I definitely want to hear what you guys thought. Even as diehard Kendrick fans, which I assume most of the people listening to this are, let me know what you thought of the set list.

Even if you are a huge Kendrick fan, I can see some people taking issue with not playing some of more traditional songs or even just going back further than Dam in the catalog. I loved it. I thought it was a rebellious act, a creative, artistic decision. I thought it perfectly tied into the theme of what he was talking about, of this pressure to succumb to the standards or expectations of America, which we know are rooted in racist, oppressive history. And Kendrick was playing with that. And I think the track list, there was some compromise, but that much GNX, that much rapping, I thought was a choice, a very creative choice. and I loved it.

I loved this kind of stuff. There's a version of this show. If he was going for applause or awards, I even think Kendrick five years ago, seven years ago would have done a very different show. I think he would have been more traditional. I think you would, I mean, obviously it would have been great and creative,

but I think you would have went a slightly, or a much more traditional route, and giving people what they might have expected more. But I'm very interested now to go and kind of peruse online and see the general public's feedback to the performance or even Kendrick fans because I could see this being controversial, especially just so much of the buildup to it. There's also not like this big rumored surprise that kind of circulated online. We didn't get a GNX deluxe. There wasn't big features. Tyler didn't come out. Again, I think all that was intentional. I think this was

centering Kendrick. This was centering L.A. This was centering hip hop. But I could see the lack of that maybe rubbing people the wrong way. But personally, I loved it. Very happy with what we got. And I say this all the time now, but Kendrick is the greatest, or one of the greatest, if not the greatest artist of our generation.

He is operating on all, he's firing on all cylinders at the very, very, very highest level. And this doesn't happen all too often. And we should really be appreciative of such a quality artist was something to say operating on a massive scale like this. And what he gave us was, was art. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you guys for listening. Check out the Mr. Moral season. If you haven't already, hit me up with your opinions on at Dysick podcast. And that's it. I'm going to bed. Good night.