Context: It was John-the-son who directed my attention to the halftime show at the Superbowl — which I would have missed entirely in my ordinary life, disdaining as I do sportsing in general, football in particular, and the annual ritual of February gladiatorial combat that seems to rivet most Americans...But I have realized that this absolutely vital episode fits right in with and serves as a challenge to the breadth of vision of my Lexicon project, which is rooted in the notion of the speech community, and in the signification of words and phrases in the lexicon: what they mean to those who employ them in speech and in writing.
or maybe this:
and a fitting second/third:
Trying To Explain Kendrick Lamar's Divisive Super Bowl Halftime Show To My Dad
...Every detail of this show had felt deliberate and loaded, every nuance accounted for—often on multiple levels....
So: the Superbowl. Entertainment is what it's all about. The first attraction is to the Spectacle, the Effects, the Choreography, the Costumes ... the SHOW. And secondarily to the Message, if you know enough background and context and idiom to get whatever messages are encoded and broadcast. Mostly white folks don't know enough, except for some of the young who follow Black Music [and there's been that follower minority for more than a century...], and the really hip and observant few among the witless peckerwoods [there's a good century-plus of them too].
Too loud... too reckless... too ghetto...
(As Uncle Sam Jackson put it)
The National Football League's view:
If you don't already know the lyrics, you'll never follow them in the audio
...but some in the audience knew every word...
speech community
Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Lyrics
(they will take some major decoding and ...nuancing, and probably a lot of help)
heaven for the lexicologist/lexicographer
the harmless drudge
6 hidden messages in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance Cheyanne M. Daniels at The Hill
A Critical Analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Performance Ian Shaiyen at maroontigermedia.com
Kendrick Lamar's Controversial Halftime Show Explained Jacob Slankard at Collider
...and dang!, Lamar got a Pulitzer Prize 2018, for
"a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism
that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life."
Something is happening here
and you don't know what it is
do you, Mr Jones?
And here's one of the songs included in the halftime show, but 2 months ago:
squabble up Wikipedia
squabble up lyrics
what white folks ever heard the
[infectious injunction]
'squabble up'
before the Superbowl?
who can forget it now?
'Not Like Us Lyrics: Kendrick Lamar's Drake Diss Track lyrics
another Not Like Us lyrics
(Compton City Hall)
"Too Loud. Too Reckless. Too Ghetto": Black history in Lamar's Superbowl half-time performance. Marlyn Pereira at Medium
(he is a lyricist, first and foremost)
There's probably a niche for a dedicated somebody to build a discursive glossary. And phrases are often encodings of complex messages [respect, acknowledgement...].
The producer in question goes by the name DJ Mustard -
Literary Device & Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize Winning Album, Damn
Roberto Carlos Garcia at Medium
All the Lyrics to Kendrick Lamar's "Damn" bigboyradio.com
Kendrick Lamar stands as an artist true to the movement that has been reshaping the African American identity since the Great Migration of 1910. He not only understands but fully embraces the weight of responsibility that comes with furthering a cause generations in the making — one that intertwines art, activism, and the relentless pursuit of truth. Through his music and message, he carries forward the legacy of those who came before him, redefining cultural consciousness and amplifying voices that refuse to be silenced.
I suspect that google is pretty good infrastructure
for finding elucidations of lexical signification.
So if whitey encounters the term
jabroni,
Wiktionary seems willing to help out.
See the example of
Origin of the phrase "Mustard on the beat"? via English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeOften in rap music, the producer is the individual responsible for writing the track's beat -
the instrumental part of the song that is rapped over.
presumably because his real name is Dijon, and Dijon is a type of mustard.
The phrase "Mustard on the beat" is used to indicate that
DJ Mustard is responsible for writing the beat of the currently-playing track....Kendrick Lamar, who won a Grammy and recently a Pulitzer Prize for his album Damn, utilizes anaphora on his album's most popular songs. The track "Fear." finds Lamar obsessing over his insecurities, but also recalling his childhood and how he was raised to fear beatings for any perceived misstep. Lamar's song resonates with many of us, his listeners, for their honest relation of an almost universal (on different levels) lived experience. The majority of lines in the first verse begin with "I beat yo ass."
...Poetry is an oral tradition. The devices of repetition we've been discussing, Anaphora, Epistrophe, Symploce, and Alliteration were tools used not only to memorize the material, but to give the griot and the bard ways to create wonder. Get it Kendrick. Get. It.
I beat yo ass, keep talkin' you that?
The second verse finds Lamar using Anaphora to ponder his own death, and to repeat, "I'll prolly (probably) die" in a myriad of ways. He also incorporates “Or maybe die” and “Or die” into the lyrics.
I'll prolly die anonymous
You stole it, I beat yo ass if you say that game is broken
I beat yo ass if you jump on my couch
I beat yo ass if you walk in this house
With tears in your eyes, runnin' from Poo Poo and Prentice
Go back outside, I beat yo ass, lil nigga
That homework better be finished, I beat yo ass
Your teachers better not be bitchin' 'bout you in class
That pizza better not be wasted, you eat it all
That TV better not be loud if you got it on
Them Jordans better not get dirty when I just bought 'em
Better not hear 'bout you humpin' on Keisha's daughter
Better not hear you got caught up
I beat yo ass, you better not run to your father
I beat yo ass, you know my patience runnin' thin
I got beaucoup payments to make
County building's on my ass
Tryna take my food stamps away
I beat yo ass if you tell them social workers he live here
I beat yo ass if I beat yo ass twice and you still here
Seven years old, think you run this house by yourself?
Nigga, you gon' fear me if you don't fear no one else
I'll prolly die with promises
I'll prolly die walkin' back home from the candy house
I'll prolly die because these colors are standin' out
I'll prolly die because I ain't know Demarcus was snitchin'
I'll prolly die at these house parties, fuckin' with bitches
I'll prolly die from witnesses leavin' me falsely accused
I'll prolly die from thinkin' that me and your hood was cool
Or maybe die from pressin' the line, actin' too extra
Or maybe die because these smokers
Are more than desperate
I'll prolly die from one of these bats and blue badges
Body slammed on black and white paint, my bones snappin'
Or maybe die from panic or die from bein' too lax
Or die from waitin' on it, die 'cause I'm movin' too fast
I'll prolly die tryna buy weed at the apartments
I'll prolly die tryna diffuse two homies arguin'
I'll prolly die 'cause that's what you do when you're 17
All worries in a hurry, I wish I controlled things