In vestibus of the 19th century symbol of American civic duty and authority, Uncle Sam, actor and civil rights forefather Samuel L. Jackson guides Kendrick Lamar (and the audience) through the American “game” in Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl Half-time performance. The juxtaposition of significations was tense, a hip hop artist performing on one of the most preeminent national stages for not only the broad American public, but its power structure as well, the 47th president of the United States in the audience. Because of its hyperexposure, the Super Bowl audience typically seeks simple, mindless entertainment, but Kendrick is not that kind of artist. To confront this power, (flipping Gil Scott Heron’s dictum to “The Revolution ‘bout to be Televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy”), Kdot opted for illustrating the language game of ‘playing the dozens’ via a video game, giving the textual world of hip hop signifyin’ visual life. The game has cheat codes (“you brought your homeboys with you… scorekeeper, deduct one life”), strategies (“No no no no no! Too loud, too reckless, too… ghetto! Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!”), and a boon (“Say Drake!”) to end the quest. The boon Lamar and the audience comes away with, however, speaks to an epistemic shift in hip hop in America and the world.
Hip hop, in its native soundscape, is an unambiguous reflection of the American mores, evident in its penchant for hypermasculinity and hyperconsumption. As it lyrically and modally negotiates with the metanarrative, it serves as a prime example of the American sociolinguistic structural bias toward phallogocentrism. Phallogocentrism, coined by Jacques Derrida, refers to the privilege of the phallus-bearer, or masculine, to generate meaning via language. Hip Hop has historically reified its cultural embeddedness through privileging lyrical dominance, linear narratives, and the cultural practice of playing the dozens. It is, from its improvisational roots, known for challenging power structures, but it has most often done so within the language, tonality, and tradition of the American patriarchy. But a new generation of hip hop artists are building a different sonic epistemology, one that privileges not only the Word, but also the rhythm, flow, and tonal patterning that makes up the compositional structuring (sampling, beatmaking, looping, scratching) and interconnected pillars of hip hop.
Using Charles H. Long’s Significations, and drawing from critical theory, deconstruction, and liberation theology, this paper examines pulscentrism as an emergent framework within hip hop that foregrounds kinetic orality, movement, improvisation, and collective resonance over rigid textual authority. I explore how women and nonbinary artists, such as Erykah Badu, Doechii, Megan Thee Stallion, Little Simz, Young M.A., and Big Freda reconfigure hip hop’s epistemological soundscape, challenging masculinist lyrical consumption. Additionally, I consider how the evolution of beatmaking—through pioneers like J Dilla and Timbaland—has de-centered logocentrism in favor of polyrhythmic experimentation, further amplifying hip hop’s transition toward a fluid, embodied knowledge system. I will highlight male artists and their questioning of the phallogocentric narrative, including Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, and Tyler the Creator.
Beyond individual artists, pulscentrism has global implications, as seen in the rise of genres like Afrobeats, reggaeton, and drill, which prioritize rhythmic dynamism over lyrical hegemony. This shift calls for a reexamination of hip hop’s role as a tool of liberation, particularly in how its rhythmic structures foster new ways of knowing, being, and resisting oppression. By theorizing a rhythmic hermeneutic of freedom, I argue that pulscentrism offers a more inclusive, transnational, and future-oriented vision of hip hop—one that challenges colonialist modes of knowledge production and opens pathways for new articulations of identity, power, and community.
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Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance subverted expectations, transforming hip-hop’s tradition of signifyin’ into an interactive video game. Through this performance, Lamar illuminated hip-hop’s negotiation with phallogocentrism—the privileging of masculine-coded lyrical dominance—and its transition toward pulscentrism, an emergent framework emphasizing rhythm, movement, and collective resonance over rigid textual authority. Drawing from Charles H. Long’s Significations, critical theory, and liberation theology, this paper examines how artists like Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, Megan Thee Stallion, and J Dilla disrupt logocentrism by privileging polyrhythmic structures, kinetic orality, and embodied knowledge. Furthermore, the rise of rhythm-driven genres like Afrobeats, reggaeton, and drill reflects hip-hop’s epistemic shift beyond masculinist lyrical consumption toward a more inclusive and transnational sonic framework. By theorizing a rhythmic hermeneutic of freedom, this paper argues that pulscentrism challenges colonialist knowledge structures, offering new articulations of identity, power, and resistance through hip-hop’s evolving soundscape.