TDE Punch Shares An Insightful Defense Of Kendrick Lamar's Polarizing Super Bowl Performance

BY Cole Blake 1339 Views
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NFL: Super Bowl LIX-Kansas City Chiefs at Philadelphia Eagles
Feb 9, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Recording artist SZA and recording artist Kendrick Lamar perform during halftime Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
TDE Punch was a fan of the polarizing set.

TDE Punch has come to the defense of Kendrick Lamar as fans on social media have been criticizing the former Top Dawg Entertainment rapper's performance at Super Bowl LIX. As many users have suggested he should've performed more of his hit songs, Punch questioned why hip-hop artists should want to fit into the mainstream in the first place.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: "Seeing all of the commentary surrounding the Super Bowl performance, it’s showing that we lost sight of what we’ve always fought for… to be who WE ARE as artist of Hip Hop Culture. Since when did we want to fit in with the mainstream?? lol. Sure we want the mainstream platforms, but only to do US. Authentically us. That’s what always made Hip Hop so appealing."

What Songs Did Kendrick Lamar Perform At The Super Bowl?

One fan replied to the TDE boss: "I think social media does a great job of amplifying the negative echo chambers of people’s opinions because thats what keeps people hooked on these platforms... its the most watched, and it was a hip hop artist doing whatever he wanted to do. That’s hip hop and people gave it its due time. Shouts to the entire team!" Punch replied to the post: "Of course. Just speaking on a few comments from prominent Hip Hop voices." Check out his initial post above.

Lamar's pgLang co-founder, Dave Free, also defended the Super Bowl Halftime Show during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday. “We wanted this performance to have a cinematic and theatrical element to it. We can confidently say that there’s no Super Bowl performance that’s quite like this one,” he said. He added: “The feel of it is Black America. What does Black America look like, and how to control that narrative of what it means to be Black in America versus what the world’s perspective of that is." Free also noted that their intention was never about "playing the hits."

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About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.

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