Note from a triggered Black Artist: The Struggle Ain’t Kendrick.
It’s How We See Art. Kendrick, the Super Bowl, and the Art of Missing the Point.
As an artist—one who has admittedly struggled with sharing. As an artist who feels the weight of making work that resonates and relates. As an artist existing in a Black body—I ain’t gone hold y’all, watching the response to Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance has been a little triggering.
The way people reacted to Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance reminded me of my triggers about art, critique, and culture. A short essay…
Let me get this out the way now and save y’all the trouble: Big KDot fan here. But a fan within reason. Kendrick is not our savior—he’s said as much—but he is, in my opinion, one of the most thoughtful artists of our time. A true person of craft.
So watching someone who, by all accounts, pours so much into his art get reduced to “snooze” was admittedly triggering. I wanted to defend the performance, but I quickly realized— I believe Dot is good. He’s been prepared for battle. Not the Drake battle (but that too), but the battle for his art.
I wasn’t trying to defend him. I was trying to defend myself.
This was yet another reminder that most folks aren’t offering critique—they’re offering opinion. That the audience is often less concerned with the art itself and more with how it makes them feel. That many people only see art as entertainment, not culture. And far too often, we don’t sit with art long enough to fully engage with its depth.
Even we, as artists, aren’t immune to that. This is par for the course with Kendrick. It’s not lost on me that some folks only recognize his brilliance in hindsight—once time has done the work of revealing it.
Moving the goal post
And what’s worse? The discourse around his performance feels like yet another example of how we struggle to hold multiple thoughts at once. Yes, Kendrick used his platform to engage in a rap battle. Yes, the President was in the building. Yes, our communities are facing pressing issues. All of these things are true at the same damn time.
I guess everyone is entitled to their feelings. But this response feels like classic goalpost moving. Instead of debating the quality of the performance, the question becomes, ‘What was the real impact? Did it change anything?’ I’m confused. You started off calling it a “snooze fest,” and now the debate is whether it changed the country?
IDK, fam. So are we judging the performance on its entertainment value or whether it sparked a revolution? Because those aren’t the same thing
This kind of reasoning is frustrating to me because it sets an impossible standard. If entertainment and culture must instantly change the country to be valid as protest or at least challenging, then nearly all art would be dismissed. It also ignores how art shapes culture, politics, and social movements over time. Kendrick has been doing that with his art for years, hence the response it’s gotten. I believe this performance will be talked about for years.
But instead of engaging the work complexity it’s easier to dismiss it entirely. To treat it as unserious. To argue that because one thing is happening, another cannot exist alongside it. But isn’t that the very nature of Black art? To speak to the moment while also speaking beyond it?
Kendrick? I believe he was ready for this. He’s done the internal work to withstand the wave. He’s done the external work to move us.
And at the end of the day? I don’t think he cares what we think about the man’s art, just that we think. That boy did the damn thing.
The Lessons
For me, the lesson is that the work of sharing art is just as much internal as it is external.
Kendrick’s performance, and the discourse around it, is a reminder that once art leaves your hands, it belongs to the world. People will misunderstand it. Reduce it. Move the goalposts. Some won’t sit with it long enough to really see it. And that has to be okay.
Because at the end of the day, the artist’s job isn’t to control the reception—it’s to do the work. To make what feels true. To be so solid in your own creative purpose that the noise doesn’t shake you.
That’s the real battle. Not against critics or audiences, but against the doubt that keeps you from sharing in the first place.
Kendrick did the work. Now, it’s on us to decide whether we’re willing to do the same.
In closing, the only other think pieces I haven’t seen enough of are all the fundamentalist and ankh-right videos explaining the satanic movements of the Super Bowl.
-Triggered Black Artist @mrshortscreates