Kid Rock Didn’t Like Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. Surprise?

You may not want Kid Rock’s opinion, on anything, but sure as the sun will rise every morning, you’re going to get it. And, on this week’s episode of Bob Ritchie’s Idiotic Hot Takes: Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show.

Bob was a guest on the most recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, and when asked about the Halftime Show he replied: “To put it nicely, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I got to respect it. And here’s why. You know, I grew up loving, emulating hip-hop, all things hip-hop. Break dancing, deejaying, graffiti, rapping. And so I understand the culture a little bit more than most. And when I say most, of course, I mean white people.”

(For the record, Bob did do all that when he was younger but, to be clear, he grew up in the suburbs of Detroit with his affluent family, and not in the city. So, his admission of “emulating” hip-hop culture sounds like a confession that his entire career is grounded in gentrification… but, for legal purposes, that’s just speculation.)

Kid Rock Weighs in on Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Bob—who previously performed at the Super Bowl in 2004—continued: “So when you’re watching it, after, there’s a lot of things going through your head. You know, everyone’s like, ‘That sucked,’ this, that and the other.”

“I’m like, ‘Man, this kid pretty much came out figuratively with both middle fingers in the air, doing what he does for the people who love what he does, unapologetically.’ And I don’t think he gives a frog’s fat ass what anyone thinks about it. So I go, ‘Huh, it’s pretty much how I built my whole career. I gotta respect it.’”

Not content to let a black man’s talent and accomplishments speak for themselves, Bob then implied that for San Francisco 49ers star Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 kneeling protest led to Kendrick landing the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, and somehow not his 22 Grammy wins (Bob has none), his 50 million albums sold (Bob has sold 26 million), or his Pulitzer Prize for Music (Sorry Bob).

“I’ve heard nobody answer this question,” Bob posed, via NME.”How did he get that gig? Jay-Z. What happened there? I think Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar should both send Colin Kaepernick a Bundt cake and a six-pack of beer and a ‘thank you’ note with a bunch of money in it because without him kneeling and getting everyone’s panties in a bunch over the anthem, self-included, I don’t think that happens.”

Finally, Bob showed his ass, as it were, and boiled his argument down to the uninformed swill he’s consumed and regurgitated, suggesting that the show was a sign that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) regulations are coming to an end in the United States.

“This was the epitome of DEI blowing up. Because the NFL was all this DEI, end racism, all this stuff. They got Jay-Z in there booking this. Kendrick Lamar goes out there and basically turns DEI into an IED,” he said, as if he wasn’t making an (allegedly) racist backhanded compliment.

“It’s all Black people, or all people of color, speaking to his crowd, in the hood, Black people. It was like the most exclusive thing ever and I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah, that’s awesome.’ I’m laughing my ass off.”