By Paige Sylvester
Kendrick Lamar’s music is a multifaceted exploration of identity, race, and systemic oppression, but it also represents a deep internal struggle: cognitive dissonance. His artistic image is at the intersection of radical resistance, commercial success, introspective self-examination, and community. Throughout his discography, Kendrick writes a narrative that uplifts Black communities while also critiquing their internal conflicts. This embraces the use of contradiction as an important part of identity rhetoric. This dichotomy was especially brought up during his 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance, a moment that solidified his place as both a voice of protest and an artist navigating the constraints of mainstream visibility and censorship. In order to fully understand the rhetorical power of Kendrick’s show, we can look at Lloyd Bitzer’s concept of “The Rhetorical Situation,” analyzing its audience and constraints, and also the creative resources that Kendrick uses to rise above these challenges.
Bitzer defines exigence as the pressing social or cultural issue that compels a rhetor to speak. For Kendrick Lamar, the exigence of his music and halftime performance lies in the ongoing struggles of systemic racism, police brutality, economic disparity, and the commodification of Black identity in mainstream culture. His albums, To Pimp a Butterfly and DAMN., talk about the suffering that occurs when racial injustice happens. His later work, including Euphoria and Not Like Us, reflects an evolution in his artistry, addressing personal struggles and power dynamics within the music industry.
Kendrick’s music does not just document these struggles, it also actively engages with them. His work serves as both a reflection of contemporary racial issues and a historical continuum that links past activism to present realities. The 2025 halftime show provided Kendrick with a global platform to extend these themes beyond his albums, allowing him to visually communicate messages of resistance, self-examination, and empowerment to a diverse audience.
A central theme in Kendrick Lamar’s work is the concept of community, both in terms of solidarity and also internal critique. He frequently positions himself as a storyteller, documenting the experiences, victories, and struggles of Black communities, particularly those from his hometown of Compton, California. His lyricism is so profound that he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. His music embodies the voices of people that have been historically marginalized, creating a sense of shared identity and collective experience.
In one of his most famous albums, To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick’s emphasis on community is evident through his use of spoken-word poetry and dialogue between tracks. This especially stands out in his song, Mortal Man, where he ends the album with a fictional conversation between himself and Tupac Shakur (Genius, 2015). This imagined dialogue bridges generational experiences of Black activism, promoting the idea that Kendrick sees himself as part of an ongoing cultural movement instead of just an individual artist. Along with Tupac, he also mentions Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, all of whom are famously known for their work in promoting activism of the Black community.
Songs like Alright became anthems for the Black Live Matters movement, reflecting both the pain and resilience within Black communities. The repeated line, “We gon’ be alright” serves as a rallying cry, promoting communal hope amid the ongoing struggle of systemic oppression.
The song’s impact extended beyond music, as it was chanted at protests and adopted as a form of collective resistance. This highlights Kendrick’s ability to create music that isn’t just personal, but also communal, which unites listeners through shared struggles and aspirations.
In his album DAMN., Kendrick explores community through the lens of inherited trauma and moral responsibility. His song from that album, DUCKWORTH. tells the true story of how a small decision prevented his father’s death at the hands of Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the future head of Lamar’s label. This narrative emphasizes the idea that personal survival is interconnected with the fates of others, how one choice has the power to shape the lives of an entire community.
In his album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick moves beyond collective identity and delves into personal accountability within a community. Songs like Father Time address generational trauma, more specifically the expectations placed on Black men to suppress emotion and only show strength. By openly talking about these topics in his music, Kendrick contributes to a larger conversation about healing and growth within the Black community. One of the most defining parts of Kendrick’s artistry is his ability to exhibit cognitive dissonance, an internal conflict between opposing beliefs or behaviors. He often wrestles with the duality of his existence: being both a voice for marginalized communities and a benefactor of commercial success, a critic of capitalism while thriving within it, and a messenger of morality who acknowledges his own flaws and contradictions.
This internal struggle is evident in the song DNA. In this song, he celebrates his heritage while also criticizing the systemic forces that have shaped his identity: “I got power, poison, pain, and joy inside my DNA / I got hustle, though, ambition, flow inside my DNA” (Genius, 2017). These lyrics capture the paradox of inherited trauma and resilience, revealing Lamar’s awareness of both the beauty and the burden of his Black identity. Similarly, in the song HUMBLE., he oscillates between self-aggrandizement and humility, critiquing the rap industry’s emphasis on ego while simultaneously participating in it: “I’m so f****** sick and tired of the Photoshop / Show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor” (Genius, 2017). This contradiction reflects a larger tension within Kendrick’s music: his desire to be both a prophet-like figure and an everyman, both above the system and embedded within it. In his newest album GNX, Kendrick dives even deeper into personal and societal discrepancies. His song Man at the Garden exposes his struggle with fame, personal accountability, and the pressures of being seen as a savior. He acknowledges his own missteps, making it clear that he is also navigating the complexities of morality instead of just presenting himself as a flawless revolutionary.
Kendrick Lamar’s main audience lies with marginalized voices, more specifically the Black community. His music reaches its intended audience because of the everyday struggles and injustices he writes about. With that being said, however, his halftime performance grew beyond this reach to an even bigger audience: sports fans, corporate sponsors, people that aren’t familiar with his music, and those with opposing views. While many viewers saw his performance as a powerful statement on racial injustice, others may have thought that its sole purpose was to entertain, which then strips the show of its deeper messages.
The 2025 halftime show took place during a very tense political climate in America. This tension shaped the urgency of Kendrick’s performance, which in turn forced him to balance artistic expression with the censorship guidelines he had to follow. While he was not obligated to center his performance around politics or injustice, he did so anyway because that’s just the kind of artist he is.
One of the most prominent moments of his performance was when he performed Not Like Us. While the main purpose of this track is to diss on fellow rapper, Drake, it also outlines the power struggles in the music industry and the exploitation of Black artists. The song puts an emphasis on Kendrick’s refusal to conform to industry pressures. Later on in the show, he performs the song All the Stars with musician SZA, which added a sense of hope and transcendence, offering a stark contrast to the performance’s politically charged moments.
Throughout the performance, the background dancers and stage were set against imagery of both historical and contemporary protest movements. His use of visual rhetoric – breaking chains, raised fists, and police sirens – offered a direct message to his Black viewers, reinstating resistance. He also has his dancers dressed in red, white, and blue, creating a version of the American Flag which later gets split down the middle. Others interpreted this aspect of the performance as representing gangs in America: red for the Bloods, blue for the Crips, and white for the KKK. As the show went on, the stage design continued to evolve, transitioning from a dark and oppressive setting to a brighter red setting. This visual shift, accompanied by quick camera cuts between historical protests and present-day footage of police brutality created a sense of urgency and collective memory. For people who aren’t familiar with his work or are uneducated about prejudice, these stylistic choices could have just been a part of the show rather than a call to action. This makes clear the challenges of trying to speak across diverse perspectives.
The halftime show also incorporated heavy sports imagery, playing on the fact that Kendrick was performing in a stadium where competition, strategy, and power dynamics are central themes. With that being said, however, the “game” motifs could be interpreted to represent the political climate of the country or the capitalist society that we live in. For example, part of his performance was on a stage that looked like the buttons on a Playstation controller and, at the end of the show, displayed the words “Game Over”. When these motifs are combined with all of the other imagery he uses, it becomes clear that there’s a much deeper meaning lying under the surface.
A surprise guest made an appearance throughout the halftime show: Samuel L. Jackson.
He was playing the character of Uncle Sam, a prominent figure often used to personify the United States. Kendrick put an interesting twist on the character, making him the antagonist of the performance, who described it as “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” (Hellerman, 2025). This character could also be a nod to one of Samuel L. Jackson’s famous roles in Django Unchained, a movie about slavery and racial injustice.
The halftime performance was a masterclass in using multimodal rhetoric, such as music, visuals, and physical movement, to communicate important yet difficult messages. In reference to Stewart’s Persuasion in Social Movements, we can see how Kendrick used protest rhetoric and symbolic action to create a show that went beyond entertainment. He opened the show alone on a dimly lit stage and dressed in black, as archival footage of civil rights marches and contemporary protests played behind him. This visual connected past and present struggles, reinforcing the idea that the fight for justice is continuous and far from over.
Bitzer’s notion of constraints refers to factors that inhibit a rhetor from fully realizing their message. Kendrick’s constraints included the corporate structure of the NFL, which has historically suppressed player activism, and the expectation that a halftime show should be palatable. Additionally, Kendrick’s position as both a commercial artist and a cultural critic forced him to navigate between maintaining mainstream appeal and preserving his authenticity.
Despite these constraints, Kendrick employed powerful and creative resources to amplify his message. Drawing from Charles Stewart’s Persuasion in Social Movements, we see that Kendrick strategically used symbols, historical references, and poetic lyricism to embed protest within his performance. He also demonstrated Stewart’s concept of militant rhetoric, which is the use of direct, confrontational messages to challenge dominant ideologies. He does this by refusing to dilute his lyrics and visuals for the sake of corporate and political approval. The incorporation of historical footage and symbolic costumes reinforced his message without needing explicit commentary, a strategy often used in social movements to circumvent censorship while still delivering his message.
Kendrick also used nonverbal rhetoric to enforce his themes. For example, his choice of using a minimalistic black-and-white set evoked imagery of old civil rights footage, aligning his performance with historical movements. Another aspect that does this is when he says “40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music,” which is a reference to General William T. Sherman’s Field Order that gave newly freed slaves land in the south. His body language throughout the show, controlled and passionate, mirrored the struggle between containment and defiance, further drawing attention to his cognitive dissonance as an artist within a corporate setting. Kendrick Lamar’s engagement with “The Rhetorical Situation” displays his ability to transcend constraints and communicate urgent messages through music. His halftime show was not just a performance, but a rhetorical act – a conversation between past and present, artist and audience, and resistance and assimilation. By applying Bitzer’s ideas, we can see how Kendrick navigates exigence, audience expectations, and institutional limitations while using creative resources to maintain his artistic integrity.
Ultimately, Kendrick Lamar’s work embodies the contradictions of modern activism: How do you challenge a system while working within it? His halftime show answered this question with complexity, forcing audiences to confront both the power and the limitations of rhetoric in shaping cultural change. Through his strategic use of protest imagery, symbolic action, and poetic lyricism, Kendrick has redefined what a Super Bowl halftime performance could achieve, proving that even within a corporate space, resistance can thrive.
Works Cited
deBoer, Freddie. “Kendrick Lamar: Talented Musician, Provocative Figure, Emperor of the Whites.” Freddie deBoer, 12 Feb. 2025, https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/kendrick-lamar-talented-musician.
Hellerman, Jason. “Kendrick Lamar Halftime Show.” No Film School, 10 Feb. 2025, https://nofilmschool.com/kendrick-lamar-halftime-show.
“Kendrick Lamar.” Genius, 4 May 2024, https://genius.com/artists/Kendrick-lamar.
“Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show.” Youtube, NFL, 9 Feb. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDorKy-13ak.
Rawlings, Johnny. “Kendrick Lamar’s Social Commentary – Past/Present/Pop – Medium.” Past/Present/Pop, 30 Apr. 2024, https://medium.com/past-present-pop/kendrick-lamars-social-commentary-a287bba7545. Stewart, Charles J., et al. Persuasion and Social Movements: Sixth Edition. Waveland Press,
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