While preparing Saturday’s meal at the end of PM, I enjoyed the conversation between Jean-Charles Lajoie and my favorite SRC host, Marie-Louise Arsenault. Since anything can (indeed) happen, I was the first to be surprised that my rant, written spontaneously for PAN M 360, made it this far. That is, to the point of publicly defending the arrosé and conclusively demonstrating his personal culture. What’s more, in a resolutely Canadian radio tone. Cool!
Frankly, I didn’t know much about JiC’s private life or his inclinations towards art, but his level of language allowed me to deduce that no, JiC wasn’t at all uneducated. Rap ignoramus? Yes, from the outset… but less so than I felt at the end of the interview. This calls for a continuation and an end on my part.
Live on Saturday, JiC revealed, among other things, that he had frequented the contemporary dance scene in his early adulthood, not unlike Jean-Luc Mongrain, who is not as populist as he seems.
I also observed that he was more sympathetic and sensitive to rap than he let on in his column, which I criticized outright. In this very nice exchange with Marie-Louise, he told us that he had been made aware of the Kendrick Lamar phenomenon through his sons, and that he sincerely liked his performance… albeit not as inclusive as the star of his track, Lady Gaga.
Don’t worry, I don’t want to have the last word or dwell on these written or verbal jousts between two perceptions. I don’t relish the compulsive practice of this spectacle of media polemic, which is nonetheless useful in certain contexts such as this one.
So let’s review the construction of the text in question, which I had read carefully (yes, JiC) before publicly dissociating myself from it.
First, the exaggerated title, except for so many anti-rap whites who openly and loudly hated the halftime show: Lady Gaga outclassed Kendrick Lamar. It’s worth remembering that the title of a text guides its reading, transforms its perception. I know what I’m talking about: throughout my career, I’ve raged time and time again about having had a spectacular and misleading title imposed on me by a desk clerk. But JiC hasn’t raised this issue, so let’s assume he assumes his title.
Now, if that title is consciously chosen, everything that follows is open to interpretation:
“Not that the Compton icon, emancipated from this impoverished Los Angeles suburb was bad, on the contrary.”
JiC may be implying that Kendrick Lamar put on a very good show, but the title that precedes it tinges that statement with irony. And what follows reinforces this impression:
“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. Ever 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 experiencing a moment of collective release at the heart of the biggest soccer party on the planet.”
Then it gets even more annoying.
If we follow this logic, Kendrick Lamar should turn into a lighter, more entertaining artist because he’s at SB. Bias…
For most of his minority detractors in America, palefaces who abhor hip-hop (including, it has to be said, many native Kebs), this performance was incomprehensible and lacking in special effects, and therefore “13 minutes of propaganda”.
After having blown the hot, here’s the cold from JiC’s side, a fine fox who knows how to please his mostly anti-rap sports fans and also some who recognize his real tastes and therefore his paradoxical posture which follows:
“Don’t get me wrong. Kendrick Lamar’s statement on Sunday night was fantastic. His line “The revolution will be televised, you picked the right time, but not the right guy” was worth the 15 minutes alone. And what can we say about his hammered charge against his rival Drake, whom he accuses of being a pedophile, Not Like Us, during which the legendary Serena Williams appeared in a “C.R.I.P. walk”, a darling of Compton like Lamar but also… Drake’s ex-girlfriend!”
Even with this insistence, supported by Kendrick’s Gil Scott Heron-inspired paraphrase (the revolution won’t be televised), it’s hard to understand the reviewer from the outset.
I conclude that JiC tripped without irony (after his clarifications at Marie-Louise’s) but considers that the occasion was not propitious for such a Kendrick stunt in a hallucinating historical context. The arrival of Trump, the USA cut in two, the free world cut in two, an international climate suddenly explosive.
So why not simply applaud such an intervention by the most brilliant rapper of his generation?
Performed in front of President Trump, who would have deserted the show, on one of the biggest platforms imaginable for such an exercise. Wow! Not inclusive and entertaining enough for the occasion? You bet.
Having said that, JiC acknowledges Kendrick’s finesse, which significantly lowers my level of ignorance after his radio-Canadian explanations, whereas my first perception was one of subtle mockery of the famous rapper, hence my own exaggeration at the time, I confess.
And so I now believe what he says:
“Basically, Kendrick Lamar’s powerful editorial confirmed his status as a hip-hop icon. History will record that he even did enough to push Donald Trump out of the stadium during his performance, enough to make Kamala Harris envious.”
OK, well received, but…
“The first rapper to single-handedly provide halftime at a Super Bowl game, his performance was nevertheless a far cry from the collective led by Dr. Dre and Eminem who smashed it all in 2022.”
Really?
As a die-hard NFL fan, I’ve been watching the SB half-time shows since I was a kid, a long time ago, when marching bands played on the field. For the LIX, at least, I didn’t see any choreography more conventional than the previous ones. I didn’t see Samuel Jackson steal the show, as JiC claims. I wasn’t short of special effects, given the content of the intervention. Rather, I applauded the show’s genuine dramaturgy, coherent construction and fully mastered artistry.
That’s why JiC’s conclusion, which justifies the title of his text, got me even more excited.
“…deploying all the emotion and power of her voice in front of citizens from all walks of life, everyday heroes, Lady Gaga embodied what the United States of America should be: united, inclusive, unifying.A great television moment that made me want to see the 5-foot-2-inch superstar rock the planet again in a future halftime show!”
Er…no. I like Lady Gaga, but you can’t compare her to Kendrick any more than you can compare Barbra Streisand to Bob Dylan… a complete unknown, needless to say.
So if you’re calling for more levity at the halftime show, you don’t invite Kendrick and you don’t invite popular artists like that. Of course, you can’t cram so much substance into every SB, but I think this time was ideal, all things considered. And the more I think about it, the more I believe that this performance will be remembered as one of the most important in six decades of SB.
I insist: it’s very rare that artistic substance of this level of excellence manages to produce such a subversive impact and thus catalyze the thinking of its adherents and opponents, a little like the deep divisions that are eating away at Western societies in this chaotic era that is dawning. Kendrick’s 13 minutes is a real grower: the more you think about it, the better it gets.
Well, let’s not get carried away… after further explanations from our star communicator, who explained himself quite well on the matter afterwards (except of course having assumed that I’d only read the title of his text haha!), I’d like to think that the columnist will agree with me more and more on this issue. No irony intended, JiC.
