Bad Bunny or Kid Rock?
What did you choose to watch during the Super Bowl halftime?
I caught the Turning Point halftime thing late last night after coming home from my second job. It’s up on YouTube.
I remember being pretty close to the stage when Kid Rock played Woodstock ‘99, and how powerful that performance was of “Bawitdaba” when he emerged like some kind of white trash James Brown (or so he envisioned I’m sure). It was fun to see it live, and it remains the single, solamente aspect of Kid Rock’s career I can appreciate.
However, I remember one of the editors at CMJ New Music Report trying to get me to write up Devil Without A Cause when it first came out, and I was like, “Hard pass.”
Kid Rock might have jumbled together three genres I deeply love — hip-hop, heavy metal and Southern rock — but the way he delivered them was a real doody sandwich that I could not accept nor give a positive review to. While “Bawitdaba” was somewhat tolerable, a whole album from this entitled poseur was a bridge too far. I’m sorry.
Now, 27 years later, I see Kid Rock headlining this Turning Point halftime show, and he’s lip syncing! It’s bad enough that he’s gone all in on white Xtian nationalist culture by headlining this second rate talent show. But he didn’t even have the sack to actually sing his vocals? What the heck!
The only thing about this that made me somewhat smile was seeing Stefanie Eulinberg — the only good aspect of the god-awful Twisted Brown Trucker band — is still behind the drumkit.
Also, note to Mr. Ritchie — you are no Bobby Weir in those cut-offs, son.
Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl, on the other hand, was fantastic. As someone who grew up in a heavily Puerto Rican section of my area upstate, that culture is in my DNA, and I felt the joy of his colorful halftime show radiating through the flat-screen.
Call me a lib, but I’ve always grown to appreciate this country as “The Great American Melting Pot” that Lori Lieberman sung about on Schoolhouse Rock! in the 1970s. And seeing how Benito incorporated so many aspects of Puerto Rican culture both on the island and in the United States was heartwarming and exhilarating.
Some of the best moments:
– The old men at the card table playing dominoes
– Bunny climbing the telephone pole with a fearlessness on par with his WWE appearances.
– Giving his younger self one of the six Grammys he won the weekend before.
– Lady Gaga doing a salsa version of “Die With A Smile.”
– The bodega
– Those khaki skirts
– The wedding
Anyway, I just wanted to give you my two cents. It’s sad to see my country resegregate itself again. Especially over joyous music such as Bad Bunny’s.
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