Kid Rock Tells Bill Maher Kendrick Lamar Played Super Bowl Because of Kaepernick | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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Bill Maher has interesting guest fellows -- case in point, Kid Rock, who called out Jay-Z and the NFL for a Halftime show for being pretty much exclusionary -- of white entertainers.

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00:00Bill Maher, as part of his ongoing efforts to hear all sides, I think, sat down with

00:07Kid Rock, who initially you would think, alright, Kid Rock has made it very clear what his political

00:14leanings are, he's very clear that if Trump supports it, if Trump says something, Kid

00:19Rock is on board with pretty much everything that I've seen up to this point.

00:23And he seemed hyper-aggressive because, you know, you think about him shooting the Bud

00:27Light can.

00:28Yes, and in some ways launching the Bud Light boycott.

00:32That's right.

00:33When I watched Bill Maher and I heard Kid Rock was on, I thought, oh my God, and it

00:37was different than I thought.

00:39Hmm.

00:40Interesting.

00:41It was really different.

00:42Well, I don't know if I'd say it was different than I thought, but let's say, look, the big

00:49thing was, and I think this is where a lot of people are split on this, what Kid Rock

00:54had to say about Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance and the reactions to it.

01:01And certainly we've all seen the memes for more than a week now where it's, this is what

01:07black people thought when they saw it, and this is what white people thought, or more

01:12specifically what MAGA supporters thought when they saw the halftime performance.

01:18Kid Rock, clearly MAGA, so you would think you know what his reaction is going to be.

01:21This is what he told Bill.

01:23To put it nicely, it wasn't my cup of tea, but I got to respect it.

01:26I'm like, this kid pretty much came out figuratively with both middle fingers in the air doing

01:32what he does for the people who love what he does unapologetically.

01:38I don't think he gives a frog's fat ass what anyone thinks about it.

01:42Like you.

01:43Well, that's what I'm saying.

01:44I'm like, so I go, huh, that's pretty much how I built my whole career.

01:47I got to respect it.

01:48This is the epitome of DEI blowing up because, you know, the NFL was on this DEI and racism,

01:54all this stuff.

01:55They got Jay-Z in their book and this, and like Kendrick Lamar goes out there and basically

01:59turns DEI into an IED.

02:03It's like, it's all black people are all people of color speaking to his crowd in the hood,

02:08black people.

02:09It was like the most non-exclusive or the most exclusive thing ever, and I'm like, yeah,

02:15that's awesome.

02:16I think he meant exclusionary.

02:17Yes.

02:18And then he viewed it as exclusionary because it wasn't for a white audience.

02:24There weren't white people on stage.

02:25And so it's not inclusionary.

02:28Yeah.

02:29So Harvey, you seem like you took it as that, that he enjoyed the performance after like

02:33watching.

02:34No, no, no.

02:35I didn't know.

02:36No, I didn't.

02:37What I said, what he said was not my cup of tea and I'm putting that nicely, but I respect

02:42the guy because he doesn't care what other people think.

02:45If people had a problem with it, he gives them the middle finger and that's exactly

02:49the way Kid Rock thinks.

02:51And he said, I respect that, which I thought was really interesting.

02:53But he also said that if it wasn't for Kaepernick taking a knee that Kendrick would have never

02:57performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, which is kind of a crazy take.

03:02I mean, Kendrick, obviously super accomplished in music, but is having one of the biggest

03:06years for any artists in music, the biggest song of the year.

03:09I don't think that has anything to do with Kaepernick taking a knee.

03:13Right.

03:14He basically diminished Kendrick's selection and performance as being just the NFL doing

03:20a make good to black people.

03:23Let me ask you.

03:24And that's the part that's, and I know he said he respects Kendrick for doing the show

03:27he way he did.

03:28And I believe him when he says that.

03:29And that's, yeah, that's a little different than I expected.

03:32But the tone of everything else he said was exactly what you would expect from Kid Rock.

03:37Right.

03:38I mean, he said, I didn't like it and he just said, not my cup of tea.

03:42And he clearly wasn't thrilled with the fact that it was, in his eyes, exclusionary to

03:48all people who weren't people of color.

03:51I don't think, did you feel, did you, I know, but did you feel, I didn't feel it was a racial

03:57kind of thing in the sense of him saying, oh, I'm pissed off because there were only

04:01black people.

04:02No, not even racial.

04:03It was, it was a policy dig.

04:04He's saying it was everything turned on its head.

04:06It was a policy dig, right?

04:09Because Trump has been honest, the whole thing about no DEI, outlaw DEI, right, with one

04:14of his first executive orders.

04:17And this was, this is Kid Rock saying, see, President Trump was right.

04:22DEI is bad.

04:24Look what happened when the NFL made a DEI hire for the Super Bowl halftime show.

04:29And I think he's also pointing out, which a lot of people would have his mindset think

04:33that like once Rock Nation took over the Super Bowl in what, 2019, there's been no

04:37white acts.

04:38It's been, you know, pretty much all, all black artists that have performed at the Super

04:42Bowl halftime show.

04:43So I think that's kind of what his point he's trying to make.

04:46What I loved about him on Bill Maher was, you know, it's like, and this is Bill's thing

04:51about that two sides just can't automatically hate each other.

04:56And it just felt like kind of a real, look, you can disagree with part of it or whatever,

05:00but it was a reasonable conversation.

05:02And there was something that happened at the very end is Bill said goodbye to him and he

05:05was walking over to his panel.

05:07He said, I'll see you at my house tonight.

05:09Right.

05:10So that was interesting.

05:11Good afternoon.

05:12Mike Gallagher here in Chicago.

05:13I don't think anyone had it on their 2025 scorecard that Kid Rock would be the voice

05:19of the people for the Republican Party.

05:22Absolutely perplexing.

05:23But to have the conversation of DEI, I would challenge Kid Rock's understanding and comprehension

05:29of the policies that DEI pushes out into this country.

05:33The reality is I don't agree with Kid Rock.

05:35And to say that black people in the hood is who Kendrick was talking to shows his disconnection

05:41from the culture, from the politics and from the reality of this country.

05:46But I will say, did you see the polls afterwards and the memes about how it was received differently?

05:53I did.

05:54But the reality is I think no one has broken down Kid Rock's history, his political tone,

06:02nor his theatrics in music.

06:04I mean, let's be good.

06:05I watched his performance for the Republican campaign and that crowd didn't seem into his

06:15messaging.

06:16I didn't see it.

06:17Yeah.

06:18I think the part that's offensive to Kendrick fans is to think that he didn't want to say

06:23that he didn't want to reach white people, I think misses the point.

06:27He actually did want white people to pay attention.

06:29Now you can't force someone to pay attention.

06:32Kid Rock clearly wasn't down for it.

06:34Well, and look, the other thing is the song was so massive that you can't say it's confined

06:39to one group.

Kid Rock Tells Bill Maher Kendrick Lamar Played Super Bowl Because of Kaepernick | TMZ Live

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