I stumbled across a scathing review of the Super Bowl halftime show by Jean-Charles Lajoie aka JiC, a host and sports columnist I respect – more to the point, I watch his daily show on TVA Sport quite often. Lively, intelligent, experienced, knowledgeable, big-mouthed, a great showman on TV and a great communicator.
And yet… a big mouth sometimes means outbursts and impertinence. As such, JiC should shut up about hip-hop, or at the very least humbly express an unfavorable opinion as a layperson, rather than wallow in the peremptory tone of his very bad column published this week in the Journal de Montréal. I invite all music fans to read this anti-rap piece.
“But we have every right to expect a more spectacular performance on the big Super Bowl half-time stage. Personally, I want it to be big and splashy, with visual effects and pyrotechnics, I want it to be bigger than big. I also want it to be inclusive.
Inclusive? Really?!!
“Excluded” from the party, JiC and so many white people his age (50+) haven’t yet grasped the fact that hip-hop has outrageously dominated Western pop music for the past two decades. That the majority of Westerners love this style without forcing it. That hip-hop has been around since the late 70s… Hello? That Kendrick Lamar doesn’t give a bad show just because he raps, but that he’s surrounded by exceptional artists, from Samuel Jackson as Uncle Sam to Serena Williams’ crip walk on Drake’s symbolic grave or SZA’s suave vocals.
Does that mean anything to you, SZA, JiC? The Grammys awarded to the singer aren’t enough to make you feel included, you who surely know Bruuuce, Robert Plant or Metallica? Not capab rap? If you don’t keep up with pop culture that’s totally dominated by soul, R&B and hip-hop, it’s understandable that you don’t feel you’re in the same game… and, all in all, it’s also understandable that you’re a total ignoramus of mass pop culture as it is today. Yes, I’m a bit tough, but your crust deserves to be generously smeared, as the Velveeta ad would have suggested… Granted, no one’s demanding that you don’t get it, but…an ignoramus expressing himself with authority and grandiloquence on such a media platform is becoming very ordinary.
Yes, JiC, you know Lady Gaga, you’ve heard her with the late Tony Bennett and maybe even with Bruno Mars last week at the Grammys. THAT’s inclusive, isn’t it? But not a single word about the superb New Orleans artists Terence Blanchard, Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty, Lauren Daigle and Ledisi, invited before the kick-off, some of whom have visited us a few times in Montreal… to packed houses. And Lady Gaga, whom you rightly praise, is now known to nonagenarians on this continent.
But why speak out about art when you only know one artist on the SB halftime show?
The host and columnist adds: “Since the NFL ceded control of its Super Bowl halftimes to Jay-Z, I feel more like I’m being subjected to 13 minutes of propaganda than to a moment of collective release at the heart of the biggest soccer party on the planet.”
Now that’s some serious nonsense from JiC.
If Bruce Springsteen had sung some of his politically committed songs there, I bet a 10 he’d have found it very cool. Whereas Kendrick, one of the best songwriters in rap today (except for his stubbornness in playing this ridiculous testosterone game with Drake… who nonetheless opened hostilities), is accused of propaganda. What’s more, by a white man who clearly knows nothing about his masterful work. Unconscious bias? Yes, JiC, I’ll probably be labeled a woke 67-year-old. Well, to say…
An NFL maniac, I personally watched the SB on Sunday in a warm and welcoming lounge, populated exclusively by white men in their sixties and seventies. Guys of my generation whom I sincerely love and have known for decades. But some of them had JiC’s reaction. One of my friends even asked me to answer the question: “Why hip-hop at the Super Bowl? “So? At first, I was a little embarrassed. I can well understand, accept and respect this feeling, but it’s better to avoid antagonizing and breaking the mood. In a gathering of friends, for such a small detail of life, there’s really no need to make a fuss. But I confess I couldn’t hold back when another dear friend said it was the worst halftime show in SB history.
Oh yeah? OK. When you don’t really like hip-hop, you can legitimately express your displeasure… even to the point of issuing such a verdict?
The tone of this disapproval would probably have been different in the company of our children and our friends of the younger generations, in their twenties, thirties and forties… To my friends’ credit, their comments were much less intense than that of host Louis Lacroix, who tweeted that he had seen street gangs take control of his TV, referring to the half-time show. The poor man has since apologized for uttering such racist nonsense.
Well, no, it may not have been the best halftime show… but it certainly wasn’t the worst. Not the best 3D effects, but certainly not the worst. Maybe not the best choreography, but certainly not the worst.
As for the rap, Kendrick’s lyrics, the exceptional quality of which detractors ignore, we must remind the uninitiated that he is one of the most brilliant popular songwriters the USA has produced in 30 years.
His editorial stance on the SB halftime show was an opportunity to criticize the heart of this entertainment, without denying the pleasure of being there. That’s not what propaganda is about.
What’s more, Kendrick surrounds himself with some of the hottest musicians and beatmakers on the West Coast and beyond. And I can attest to the fact that he’s put on some of the greatest hip-hop shows ever presented in the world’s arenas and stadiums.
So when a white keb communicator (exactly as I am) expresses such ignorance, such contempt, I’m ashamed. But I forgive you, JiC, I love you to this day. You didn’t know what you were doing, as another JC said in other circumstances.
