To be read as a direct continuation of Part 3; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2025/02/its-time-to-renegotiate-social-contract_28.html
Not Like Us then blended into; "TV Off." Another song from the GNX album which was released alongside "Squabble Up." What used to be known as a; "Double A Side" before Streaming changed the music industry.
At this point Kendrick Lamar brought out DJ Mustard as a guest performer. Hip-Hop/Rap began with a DJ playing records on twin turntables and someone Rapping over the top. The DJ then discovered they could combine parts of multiple songs (samples) with the Rapping to create entirely new songs. So Hip-Hop/Rap acts have traditionally always included a DJ. RUN DMC had the DJ Jam Master J, Cypress Hill had DJ Muggs and Public Enemy has Terminator X. DJ Mustard is Kendrick Lamar's DJ for Not Like Us and TV Off.
A major theme of this Half-Time Show has been an exploration of the Super Bowl as America's Game. How it compares with the Eurovision Song Contest as Europe's Game.
What typically happens at the Super Bowl is that the Half-Time Show headliner performs a medley of their greatest hits along with whatever new songs they're trying to promote. Any political/social reference is quite laboured with songs being written for an entirely different reason trying fit in the theme's of the day. I don't have any insight into Kendrick Lamar's thought process when he was writing DNA back in 2018. However I really doubt he was thinking; "This will sound great when I play the Super Bowl in seven years time!"
Eurovision Song Contest entries have to be new songs. Released, in a physical format, no earlier than September of the previous year. As a result they tend to be written specifically for the Song Contest. Specifically crafted to reference political/social issues in a non-overt way. That's not always the case. At the 2021 Song Contest Maneskin just entered a song from their album and presented it in a way that could fit with the themes of the day. They also did it in a genre of music which tends not to do well at Eurovision. Yet they won anyway. Confusing pretty much everyone in the Eurovision community.
Kendrick Lamar was chosen to headline the Half-Time Show much earlier than the decision is usually made, back in September of the previous year. His album GNX then wasn't released until November 2024. So I think TV Off is a song Kendrick Lamar has written specifically for the Super Bowl. Tailoring it to specific political/themes. Like he would do if he were writing America's Eurovision Song Contest entry.
So the title of the song references that main theme of the Super Bowl. The UK Security Services inability to educate Taylor Swift. It does so by referencing the 1970 Gil Scott-Heron poem which became a song; "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." That's how we knew the UK's 2024 Summer Riots were not an authentic revolution. They were televised.
Although not used in the Half-Time Show the opening verse of TV Off talks about Kendrick Lamar wanting a; "Black Grand National." The Grand National is really Britain's most famous Horse race. When I found Miley Cyrus being firmly shoved in my direction around the time of the 2021 Super Bowl I took to frequently changing the password on my Instagram account. In an effort to include Miley Cyrus in my little network of 'Facebook Friends' and get us all talking to each other, directly.
Knowing this would be seen by a large number of people rather than being a secret I actually chose a series themes to entertain all those watching. The first theme I chose was Cavalletti Horse Training. This is something you do with young Horses to teach them the basic steps before moving onto more complex things like Jumping. The joke being that Miley Cyrus and the CIA were the foolish young Horse we were trying to teach the basic steps to. As an added joke I chose the method of Cavelletti Horse Training pioneered by Reiner Klimke. Who won Men's Gold in Dressage at the 1964 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo, Japan. Dressage being what Compton Rapper Snoop Dogg went onto describe as; "Crip Walking Horses."
Then the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics/Paralympics rolled around in Tokyo, Japan. Suddenly I apparently know nothing about Horses(!) During those Summer Games the theme I chose was written Japanese. How the strokes in the characters of the pictographic language are used as an indexing pattern, an alternative to an alphabet. Shortly after the end of those Summer Games we got The Great American Bell Ringing.
Alongside Horses the opening verse of TV Off makes reference to Alphas and Omegas, Lieutenants and Sergeants. Bringing up the Johnny Cash song; "The Man Comes Around." Its use in; "Generation Kill." All the issues that involves.
It's very easy to blend TV Off and Not Like Us together. TV Off is actually trailed at the end of the Not Like Us video. Making me think that Kendrick Lamar was debating whether he needed to bother continuing his Rap Battle with Drake into the GNX album. One reason the songs are easy to blend together is that Not Like us samples Monk Higgins 1968 version of; "I Believe In My Soul" while TV Off samples Monk Higgins' 1968 version of; "MacArthur Park." A song about a park in Los Angeles.
By sampling Monk Higgins' work Kendrick Lamar was harking back to a time when what was considered Black Music was much broader than just the Gangster Rap which emerged after the Tupac/Biggie feud. TV Off also samples Biggie Smalls' 1997 diss track; "Kick In The Door." So a little bit of an East Coast-West Coast clash between Biggie Smalls and MacArthur Park.
TV Off also samples the overture from the 1979 Disney produced Sci-Fi movie; "The Black Hole" - "The Black Hole - Overture."
An overture is something which has its origins in Opera. A short medley of all of the songs in the Opera is played at the start of the performance. Samuel Jackson's narrator in the Half-Time Show is really a reprise of a role he played in the 2015 movie; "Chi-Raq." A modern retelling of the Classical Greek play; "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes which is considered the first comedy. In Koine Greek "Comedy" derives from the words; "Revel" and; "Song." Showing that plays, the movies of their day, have their roots in the storytelling of songs and poetry. A point further reinforced by TV Off's clear reference to Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
The leading movie at The Oscars 2025 is; "Emilia Perez" with 13 nominations. This is all about the Transgenderism which is so fashionable in America at the moment. It's said to be an Opera although I'm interested to see how much of a true Opera it actually is. Opera is another style of storytelling which is deeply rooted in song. The plots of many Operas are actually very silly melodramas, bordering on the absurd. However the story is not so much important as the way the story is told. With the music conveying the emotion of the story. "Melodrama" actually means; "Musical Drama."
As was raised through the references to Chi-Raq and Lysistrata there are no new issues, there are no new stories. The challenge for the storytellers being celebrated at The Oscars and Awards Season more generally is to find new ways of telling very old stories. A movie Opera is certainly different.
The movie The Black Hole is set aboard a spaceship exploring deep space. They discover another spaceship which has long thought to be lost. Boarding it they discover it to be crewed by only one Human Maximilian Schell's "Dr. Hans Reinhardt" who is being served by a crew of robots. They then discover that these robots are not robots at all but drones. The Human crew that Dr. Reinhardt has turned into Human-Robot hybrids. Sort of like how AI assisted computers can now take the likenesses of actors and singers and use them to create computerised drone versions. The movie's use of computerised motion capture control was revolutionary at the time.
The Black Hole also has rather an interesting Hollywood story attached to it. Initially Sigourney Weaver was to be cast in the role of; "Dr. Kate McCrae" but it was decided that her name was too complicated for the audience. So Sigourney Weaver had to make do with the much more successful "Alien" (1979).
Then Jennifer O'Neill was cast in the role. She was told that she had to cut her hair. Apparently she found this so traumatic that when her personal hairstylist Vidal Sasson came to the set to give her the haircut she got very drunk. She then left the set and got into a car accident which left her hospitalised. She was then fired from the movie with Yvette Mimieux finally being cast in the role. Jennifer O'Neill went onto to become a Born Again Christian and Anti-Abortion activist. Always a fashionable topic in America's great cultural debate.
Written by Jimmy Webb the original version of MacArthur Park was released in 1967 by Richard Harris. Someone who is probably better known as an actor. However in the 1960's it was common for actors to use their fame to launch singing careers. Star of the; "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" TV show David McCallum also had a singing career. Writing and releasing; "The Edge" which was sampled by the Compton Rapper Dr Dre on his song; "The Next Episode" from his aforementioned 2001 album; "The Chronic II."
Richard Harris is possibly the most accomplished Irish actor ever. A younger audience will remember him as "Professor Dumbledore" in the first two Harry Potter movies. Just before his death he also played Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in "Gladiator" (2000). The sequel of which; "Gladiator 2" was released in 2024 and is in consideration at The Oscars 2025.
Born in Limerick in what was then the British Dominion (Colony) of Ireland in 1930 Richard Harris was a staunch Irish Republican. Getting in rather a lot of trouble over his support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) during The Northern-Ireland Troubles (1968-1998). He actually played a PIRA member in the 1992 movie; "Patriot Games."
In his first credited role in 1959's; "Shake Hands With The Devil" Richard Harris played an IRA member trying to help a medical student escape the British Forces (Black n' Tans) during The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). My own maternal Great-Grandfather was actually a medical Doctor during The Irish War of Independence. Although his career was cut rather short during the subsequent Irish Civil War (1922-1923).
The Irish War of Independence continues to provide what is considered one of the textbook examples of the War Crime of; "Perfidy," contrary to Customary Laws of War Rule #65. After suffering a number of attacks in and around Cork City the Black n' Tans carried out Collective Punishment attacks against local civilians. Contrary to Customary Laws of War Rule #103. In setting out on one of these raids from Macroom the Black n' Tans were ambushed near the village of Kilmicheal by the IRA. The Black n' Tans faked surrender in order to allow them to retaliate and kill members of the IRA.
This is all rather relevant to the war the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) is imposing on Israel. Particularly Hamas' Perfidious claims that Israel is engaged in Collective Punishment.
Richard Harris followed Shakes Hands With The Devil with 1960's; "A Terrible Beauty." In which he played another IRA member. Only this time in Northern Ireland during The Second World War (1939-1945).
Taken together these movies provide something of a talking point about the end of The European Colonial Era. Rather than being something which happened overnight it was actually a process which spanned nearly 40 years and two World Wars. It began with The First World War (1914-1918) then ended after The Second World War (1939-1950). Despite the Easter Rising of 1916, the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War Ireland remained as a British Colony until the 1950's. Only being admitted to the United Nations (UN) as the independent Republic of Ireland in 1955. You suspect that neither movie would've been made before that.
The start of The Cold War (1945-1991) ushered in the start of The Neo-Colonial Era. The end of the Cold War ushered in The Globalised Era. So the brave anti-Colonial warriors of Black Lives Matter are, at least, an entire era of history too late. The Richard Harris version of MacArthur Park is featured on the soundtrack to the 2024 movie; "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." Allowing us to discuss Jenna Ortega. Her Black Lives Matter inspired comedy views on Colonialism and the Peleset.
At around 18:50 on 10/3/25 (UK date) Arrgh! this will have to be finished tomorrow.
