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 themes 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. Specially 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 sort of 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 of 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 began to dominate 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 L. 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." Alongside Samuel L. Jackson.
In his first credited role in 1959's; "Shake Hands With The Devil" Richard Harris played an Irish Republican Army (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 Shake 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 (1939-1945). 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. After the UN accepted the Right of Self-Determination as a core part of its charter. 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.
Edited at around 18:55 on 11/3/25 (UK date) to tidy the above and copy & paste;
Richard Harris' Irish Republican values also saw him tackle some of America's social problems in the 1970 movie; "The Molly Maguires." This told a fictionalised version of true events amid Pennsylvania's Coal mines during the 1870.
In 1651 John Hobbes published; "Leviathan" in which he observed that life in the State of Nature was; "Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Short." In order to rise above this State of Nature, to allow them to do things such as, particularly, farming Humans must enter into a contract with each other not to steal from and kill each other. This became known as a; "Social Contract." In 1689 John Locke expanded on Hobbes' work to devise his; "Labour Theory of Property." Nature is a public gift, common to all. It is only through our labour we can turn public nature into private property. The private property we can't steal from each other under the Social Contract.
Both Hobbes and Locke were working at the start of The Second Agricultural Revolution, which spread from the 17th Century through to the 19th Century. This saw farming and food production being industrialised for the first time. Very much inspired by Locke's Labour Theory of Property a key element of The Second Agricultural Revolution was the process of; "Enclosure." What were once public lands farmed in common were enclosed as private property with people either renting parts of it to work as Tenant Farmers or as employees on one big farm.
This Enclosure of Farmland was particularly contentious in Britain's Irish Colony. Where the Enclosed Land was given to English Protestants rather than Irish Catholics. The issue became particularly heated in the mid-19th Century when Britain's Irish Colony experienced a famine which halved its population. The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1852).
The Molly Maguires were a confederation of Irish Catholic gangs rather like the Crips and the Bloods. However these gangs weren't focused so much on enriching themselves as helping their communities, similar to Trade Unions. Although the ways in which they went about helping their communities was often far from legal. They certainly weren't in the business of asking for donations. One of the groups which made up the Molly Maguires was the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), which went on to become the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
This Half-Time Show has already introduced us to how the US conquered what became Los Angeles with map-makers and engineers. One of the first things they did was draw up the first accurate maps of the area and divide it up into packets of land. These packets were then given away in the form of Land Grants. An American version of the Enclosure of The Second Agricultural Revolution.
The Governor of California Leland Stanford gave many of these Land Grants to himself. Along with the other members of The Big Four; Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins Jr and Charles Crocker. This allowed them to build the Southern Pacific Railroad. Turning Los Angeles from a town to a city by connecting to the rest of America.
This wasn't just something which was happening in California. It was happening all across America with numerous, often rival, private Railroads appearing. Often Railroads were funded by leasing land along their routes to Tenant Farmers. The Railroads allowed goods to be moved between markets for the first time. Allowing them to be sold in the market where they would get the best price, rather than the nearest. This was particularly true of heavy goods, raw materials like Coal, Iron, Copper, Gold etc.
So if you were in the business of mining heavy raw materials you were entirely dependent on the privately owned Railroads and the Robber Barons who owned them. Back in October 2024, just before GNX was released, there was an elevator accident at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Apparently visitors to this museum are each given a lump of Gold as a souvenir. Without a way of getting the Gold to a market where it can fetch US$93,000 per kilo it's pretty much worthless to the mine owners.
Coal and Iron are particularly essential to keeping the Railroads running. So holding all of the economic power over the Mine owners the Robber Barons who owned the Railroads quickly expanded their businesses to include Mining and industrial production. The Steel Mills which turned the Iron and Coal into rails. Often with the help of more corruptly awarded Land Grants and farm tenancies.
With everyone seeming to get rich off Railroads everyone started investing in Railroads. Just as how in the Netherlands in the 17th Century everyone seemed to be getting rich off Tulips, so everyone started investing in Tulips. As with the Tulip Mania this speculation of Railroads led to a crash in 1873, The Panic of 1873. Triggering two decades on Inflation and Stagnation (Stagflation) in the US and beyond. At the time this was known as the great depression. Until it was surpassed by The Great Depression (1929-1945). It's now known as; The Long Depression (1873-1889).
The Long Depression was a period of widespread social unrest with high unemployment and falling wages. Leading to much strike action amongst workers. Trade Unions didn't really exist at this time. Due to political corruption the Robber Barons weren't just the government their wealth made them far more powerful than the government. So in response to strike action they raised, essentially, private armies to literally kill the striking workers.
The largest, most famous of these private armies was Pinkerton & Co. It's often said that the US Secret Service, a government agency, grew out of the Pinkerton & Co corporation. There is even the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893 which prevents the US government employing Pinkerton & Co or similar agency. Black Lives Matter's demand to; "Defund The Police!" has seen a rise in private security companies like Pinkerton & Co. Which seems to be dragging America back to a very dark place. You almost wonder which baron is funding them.
President Trump has made a point of surrounding himself with the modern Tech Titans such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Pinkerton & Co still very much exists. As recently as 2020 they were hired by Jeff Bezos to prevent Amazon warehouse workers from Unionising.
The Molly Maguires movie tells the story of the actual Pinkerton & Co agent James McParlan played by Richard Harris. He was employed by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad to stop workers organising and striking at the Railroad's Coal Mines in 1876. The workers were being organised by the Molly Maguires. It was public outrage at Pinkerton & Co's behaviour on behalf of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and others which led to the passing of the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893.
Given Richard Harris' staunch Irish Republican values it's perhaps surprising that he was prepared to work in Apartheid South Africa for the 1977 movie; "Golden Rendezvous." A movie which is notable only for the scandal which surrounded it.
In response to growing global isolation over Apartheid then South African Prime Minister B.J Vorster established a secret propaganda unit within the Department of Information but funded by the Department of Defence. Much of this unit's activities included buying stakes in foreign newspapers and TV broadcasters to ensure favourable, pro-Apartheid coverage and run smear campaigns against anti-Apartheid activists.
This blew up into a massive national scandal in 1977. Becoming known as; "Muldergate" after the head of the Department of Information, Connie Mulder. It forced the resignation of B.J Vorster.
The Mulder fund established Thor Communications. A front company tasked with establishing a South African film industry and network of Black only cinemas to produce and promote propaganda films. To encourage Black South Africans to think that Apartheid was a good thing and they should count themselves lucky that they had White Saviours prepared to carry them on their backs.
By all accounts Thor Communications just stole US$5million of the Apartheid government's money. With around US$500,000 of it being used to fund production of Golden Rendezvous. After being paid around US$1.5million Richard Harris then proceeded to completely ruin production. This resulted in him being sued and a warrant being issued for his arrest while he was in South Africa. Filming 1979's "Game For Vultures." In which he played a villainous sanctions busting arms-dealer trying to supply helicopters to the Apartheid Rhodesian Security Forces during the Zimbabwe War of Independence (1964-1979).
The movie Richard Harris did between Golden Rendezvous and Game For Vultures, released during the scandal, became a surprise hit. It was "The Wild Geese" (1978). This is really a movie about the wars which plagued resource rich African nations during the Neo-Colonial Era.
A group of British businessmen, similar to American Robber Barons, are trying to negotiate a Copper Mining deal with the government of a fictional, resource-rich African nation - Zembala. With the government of Zembala demanding that the Robber Barons pay a fair price the Robber Barons hire a group of mercenaries to overthrow the government of Zembala, replacing it with one that will give them a better deal. However the Robber Barons tell the mercenaries that they're being employed to heroically rescue the legitimate President of Zembala.
With the mission underway the Robber Barons are able to secure a Copper deal with the current government of Zembala. So they cancel the operation, employing another group of mercenaries to kill the ones they'd previously employed.
The movie is not at all subtle about the fact that it is really about Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare's own mercenary outfit Five Commando. Hoare's Five Commando's emblem was Wild Geese. Michael Hoare acted as the movie's technical adviser.
The resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) used to be known as; "Zaire." In the very resource-rich North-East of the DRC a civil war broke in 1963. The Simba Rebellion (1963-1965). Michael Hoare's mercanaries were employed to defeat the Simbas and secure government control over the very resource-rich region. The same very resource-rich region where fighting has recently intensified. In The Wild Geese the mercanaries are fighting a group called the Simbas.
Michael Hoare's Five Commando led to the formation of much more formalised Mercenary companies. Who, like Pinkerton & Co, prefer to be called "Private Military Contractors (PMC's). Particularly notorious during the Neo-Colonial Era were South Africa's Executive Outcomes and Britain's Sandline International. Both of which played significant roles in both the Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) and the Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991-2002).
It's a big source of tension between African-led efforts to combat the type of civil war which plagued many resource-rich African nations during the Neo-Colonial Era and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC seems able to prosecute Africans like Charles Taylor yet seems powerless to prosecute White Westerners like Sandline International's Tim Spicer. While the Apartheid Era practice of embezzling huge amounts of government money seems to be one that South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) has kept up. Despite the end of Apartheid.
To throw in a further bit of Hollywood lore during Awards Season. Richard Harris also starred in The Cassandra Crossing (1976). Alongside O.J Simpson, who is certainly known to my *ahem* 'Law School Associates.' Apparently O.J Simpson was briefly considered for Roger Moore's role in The Wild Geese. Due to an American financier really not understanding what's meant by the term; "Black Irish."
Richard Harris also played Oliver Cromwell in "Cromwell" (1970). It was Oliver Cromwell who led Puritan Protestants during the First English Civil War (1642-1646). Establishing England as a Puritan Protestant Republic, the "Commonwealth" to which John Hobbes referred. Hobbes' Leviathan was written during the Second English Civil War (1648) in which Cromwell's Commonwealth was overthrown. It was published just afterwards when many Puritans were becoming Pilgrims. Heading off to America to establish places like Pennsylvania - "Plantation of Penn."
Oliver Cromwell is really not a popular figure in the Republic of Ireland. While Britain had tried to Colonise Ireland many times before it's was Oliver Cromwell's attempt that stuck. Bringing with it that much hated Enclosure of Farmland. It still continues in Six Counties to this day.
A version of MacArthur Park recorded by Waylon Jennings and The Kimberlys was released in 1970. It won the award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group at The Grammys that year.
Ever since Colin Kaepernick got fooled by Black Lives Matter and took to kneeling during the National Anthem American Football and the Super Bowl has become like ground zero for America's renewed Racial divisions. Produced by Jay Z and often featuring Black artists the Half-Time Show has become a lightning rod for those Racial Divisions.
Under Jay Z's tenure my little network of 'Facebook Friends' have been working to heal those divisions. During the Pandemic we all got very bored. I got so bored that I set about trying to chart the history of music. From its roots in the Work-Songs and Sea Shanties which date back to Lysistrata and Aristophanes in Ancient Greece. How they came ashore and became the Folk songs people would sign at home to entertain themselves in a time before TV and Radio. How they then evolved into Pop Music.
Popular music is one area where America's Racial Divisions have long been on display. The notion that only Black people can do Hip-Hop/Rap while only White people can do Country. What I've noticed though is that Hip-Hop/Rap and Country are actually incredibly similar. They're both a lyrical story being told over a simple rhythm combined with a simple melody. Often stories about young men doing crime.
The similarities between Hip-Hop/Rap and Country could be one way to help America's divided Races see what they've got in common. It's something which has been explored frequently at the Super Bowl. Such as H.E.R's performance of "America The Beautiful" at the 2021 Super Bowl. A performance very much inspired by the Waylon Jennings song; "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."
This theme reached new heights in 2024 when Jay Z's wife, Beyonce, released the Country album; "Cowboy Carter." Which swept the boards at The Grammys 2025. Winning 11 awards including Best Country Album, a first for a Black woman. Beyonce even won in that Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group category. For "II Most Wanted" alongside Miley Cyrus.
In true Hip-Hop/Rap style. I'm still waiting for my Production Credit and Royalties for Cowboy Carter. Although I think I've got a pretty good idea of the list of excuses I'm going to be getting instead. After all, isn't it true that there are no new stories? It's entirely possible for two people to inadvertently have the same idea, completely separate from each other?
Through Kendrick Lamar's Rap Battle and Half-Time Show I honestly feel as though we've just explained Hip-Hop/Rap to some White people for the very first time. Apparently Hip-Hop/Rap was invented by a Black American on August 11th 1973 (11/8/73). When Bronx, New York City resident DJ Kool Herc was playing records on twin turntables at his sister's birthday party. When he discovered that he could mix the rhythm from one record with the melody of the other and Rap over the top. Creating a whole new song.
If that's true then why is there documented evidence of Black people in the Caribbean doing the exact same thing at least a quarter of a century earlier?! Ska music which became Reggae music.
Of course at the birth of Ska the records they were playing on twin turntables were Jazz records. A genre of music that definitely was invented by Black Americans.
The 2025 Super Bowl was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Which continues to be a major centre for Jazz music.
So the "National Anthem," "America The Beautiful" and "Lift Every Voice And Sing" were performed by Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty & Lauren Diagle and Ledisi. All in a very fluid, improvised Jazz style. Showing America as a melting pot. Rather than a place of rigid, binary divisions.
19:40 on 11/3/25 (UK date).
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