Spike Lee praises Kendrick Lamar for ‘Chi-Raq’ reference in Super Bowl performance
Director Spike Lee has taken to social media to thank Kendrick Lamar for seemingly referencing his work in his Super Bowl halftime performance.
Lamar’s impressive halftime show saw him play songs like ‘Luther’, ‘Euphoria’, ‘Man at the Garden’ and, of course, his popular Drake diss track ‘Not Like Us’ – which just won him Grammys for ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’.
Alongside guest appearances from SZA and Serena Williams, Samuel L Jackson narrated the performance dressed as Uncle Sam, something that Lee believed to be a reference to the actor’s role in his film Chi-Raq.
Not only was Lee impressed that Jackson appeared during the performance in a role seemingly inspired by one of his films, but he also praised Lamar for his reference to “40 acres and a mule.”
Posting a clip of Jackson from the Super Bowl alongside a still of the actor dressed similarly in Chi-Raq, Lee wrote: “I want to thank my brother Kendrick for the 40 acres and a mule shoutout which has been the name of my production company since NYU grad film school.”
He continued, “And I want to send a special shoutout to my Morehouse brother Samuel Jackson, who started this Super Bowl Halftime extravaganza as Uncle Sam, and you might’ve seen him as Dolmedes in Chi-Raq.”
The filmmaker went on to highlight Lamar’s use of “the term 40 acres and a mule,” describing it as “a proposal for reparations to former enslaved African-Americans in the aftermath of the civil war.”
“The proposal was intended to provide land and resources to provide land and resources to help free people achieve economic independence. This promise was ultimately broken.” Lee concluded, “Happy Black His-Herstory.”
Chi-Raq was released in 2015 and took a musical approach to the crime genre, with Lee taking influence from Aristophanes’ Greek play Lysistrata.
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