Kendrick Lamar Plays the "Great American Game" at the Super Bowl

Kendrick Lamar Performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans' Caesar Superdome

Kendrick Lamar headlined this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show and used his performance to hold a mirror to America. Held at New Orleans' Caesar Superdome, the show featured songstress SZA, Serena Williams, an appearance from "Not Like Us" producer Mustard, and Samuel L. Jackson portraying "Uncle Sam."

The first solo hip-hop artist to headline the show reminded everyone why he's the only hip-hop artist to earn a Pulitzer Prize. The show opened with esteemed actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as "Uncle Sam."

"Salutations! It's your uncle, Sam, and this is the great American game!" The set, shaped like PlayStation controller buttons, took audiences on a 12-minute journey.

Kendrick Lamar stated during a pre-Super Bowl press interview with Apple Music, "I think I've always been very open about storytelling through, through all my catalog and my history of music, and I've always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I'm on."

The story Lamar told shed light on the constant policing and censorship of Black culture. "Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto," Uncle Sam said following the performance of Squabble Up. "Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!"

The dancers were woven throughout the performance, dressed in all red, white, and blue, sending a message to over 133.5 million viewers, including forming an American flag that was at one point divided.

"I see you brought your homeboys with you. The old culture cheat code. Scorekeeper, deduct one life," states 'Uncle Sam' before Lamar performed another GNX album cut, Peekaboo.

Jackson's character was also a callback to Spike Lee's film Chi-Raq.

Spike Lee posted on social media, "... And I want to send a special shoutout to my Morehouse Brother Samuel Jackson who started the Super Bowl Halftime Extravaganza as Uncle Sam, and you might've seen him as Dolmedes in CHI-RAQ..."

Viewers took to social media to decode the performance, which is now the most-watched Super Bowl Halftime Show ever.