Kendrick's Halftime Critique Of America

We're being played

Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show was a nuanced critique of America that slid right under a lot of noses. He was saying, America is a game and we’re all trapped inside of it.

The stage resembled a Playstation game controller and the performers danced in and around that so they were all on or inside of a game that they can’t get out of. They can’t even see the contours of the game to know that they’re in a game. It seems like he’s saying capitalism and/or mass incarceration and/or the American system in total are games that we’re all stuck playing, games so large we can’t even see that we’re playing games. We’re just getting played.