Photo by Nihal Demirci Erenay via Uplash.

In 2025, Kendrick Lamar solidified his place as one of the most influential artists of the 21st century. With his unique blend of lyricism and cultural commentary, Kendrick Lamar has become a force to be reckoned with. This year, Lamar’s continued success at the Grammys, his role in the ongoing discussion about Black culture and social justice, and his culturally significant Super Bowl halftime performance have all further cemented his legacy.

Kendrick Lamar Dominates the Grammys 

2025 marked yet another historic year for Kendrick Lamar at the Grammys. This year, he not only added more trophies to his already impressive collection but also triumphed in some of the most prestigious and highly competitive categories.

Lamar’s critically acclaimed track “Not Like Us” emerged as a standout of the year, earning him an impressive five awards. The song took home Rap Song of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rap Performance, and Best Music Video, solidifying its cultural and artistic impact.

These Grammy wins in 2025 weren’t just personal victories for Lamar; they symbolized the increasing mainstream recognition of rap. As Kendrick said himself, “This is what it’s about man, because at the end of the day, nothing is more powerful than rap music. We are the culture, it’s gonna always stay here and live forever.”

 Black Artists and the Grammys – Is 2025 a Turning Point?

Kendrick Lamar’s triumph at the Grammys in 2025 also raises important questions about the relationship between Black artists and the Recording Academy. Historically, Black musicians, particularly in genres like rap and R&B, have faced systemic barriers to receiving proper recognition for their work. The controversy surrounding Beyoncé’s repeated losses in major categories, such as her 2023 “Renaissance” loss for Album of the Year, has fueled debates about the Grammys’ treatment of Black artists.

But 2025 seems to mark a shift in how Black artists are being recognized. With Lamar’s sweeping wins in major categories, especially in categories like Song and Record of the Year, traditionally dominated by pop and rock artists, there is a growing sense that the Grammys may be moving in a new direction.

This year Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Cater” also won Album of the Year, a win that was widely celebrated. Critics and fans alike are hopeful that 2025 represents a turning point, one where Black artists are no longer sidelined but celebrated for their contributions to music and culture at the highest level. While questions remain about whether this shift will be permanent, the success of artists like Lamar and Beyoncé in 2025 is a promising sign. It may mark the beginning of a more equitable future for Black musicians in the music industry’s most prestigious award show.

Kendrick Lamar’s Symbolic Super Bowl Halftime Show

Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show was impactful. In a year where social justice continued to dominate conversations, Lamar used his platform to make a powerful statement about race, identity and resilience. 

Throughout the halftime show, Kendrick relied heavily on imagery and symbolism to make his point. The giant PlayStation controller that dominated the stage may have represented the idea of life as a game, with the American Dream being something that is “played” and often controlled by larger systems. At one point,  the dancers were arranged in formations of red, white, and blue, which at first seemed like just a standard patriotic gesture. However, the dancers often shifted in ways that fractured the imagery of the American flag, symbolizing a nation deeply divided by race, class and political tensions.
In addition, the decision to have Serena Williams perform the Crip Walk was laden with meaning. As Dr. Sequoia Maner, a professor at Spelman College in literature, explained. 

“A lot of people said, ‘Oh, you know, that’s a jab at Drake,’ right? Serena is Drake’s ex. But we forget in 2012, Serena was lambasted for doing the crip walk on the world stage at the London Olympics. And that was a moment in which we really saw this vitriol aimed at one of the most excellent top performers, saying that she was too loud and that she was too ghetto for a kind of respectable sport like tennis, right?” 

For a deeper dive into the symbolism in the half time show  you can read more in Halima Jibril’s article titled,  “America Has a Problem: Unpacking Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl symbolism.”

As 2025 continues, Kendrick Lamar’s influence on music, culture and social justice shows no signs of slowing down. His Grammy wins represent a new era for Black artists in the Recording Academy, while his Super Bowl halftime performance stands as one of the most significant cultural moments of the year. Lamar’s ability to use his platform to address difficult social issues while pushing the boundaries of his craft makes him one of the most important artists of our time. 

The pilot episode of “Yellowjackets” begins with a hunt. A teenage girl runs barefoot through a barren forest covered in snow. She is dressed in a thin, dirty nightgown and wearing a necklace with a gold, heart-shaped charm. We never see her face, but her abject terror is clear through her sharp breaths and trembling sobs. Unnerving whoops, caws and howls can be heard coming from behind her. Suddenly, the dark-haired girl falls through a hidden pit of spikes. Dead. Another young girl appears, wearing a long coat made of animal pelt, a face mask fashioned out of an old sweater and bright pink converse, looking over her body from above. 

When “Yellowjackets” first premiered on streaming platform Showtime in 2021, it quickly garnered rave reviews and a large fanbase. The show, which finished airing its second season in May of 2023, boasts a star-studded cast and a spine-chilling premise. “Yellowjackets” is told from two points in time: the first being New Jersey 1996, where the Wiskayok High School girl’s soccer team is going to nationals. Tragedy strikes when their plane crashes on the way, leaving the Yellowjackets stranded deep in the Canadian wilderness, hundreds of miles off-course, for a total of 19 months before miraculously being found. Cut off from civilization and subject to two brutal winters, the team forms into a cannibalistic cult to survive. In the second timeline, it is 2021, and the survivors of the horrific disaster are trying (and failing) to move on with their lives. In the first season, we know of five confirmed survivors of the plane crash: bored housewife Shauna Sadecki (Melanie Lynskey), high-powered lawyer turned New Jersey Senator candidate Taissa Turner (Tawny Cypress), Travis Martinez (Kevin Alves), reclusive son of the Yellowjackets’ head coach, strange, generally off-putting nurse Misty Quigley (Christina Ricci), and Natalie Scatorccio (Juliette Lewis), who is freshly sober and has recently moved back to Wiskayok. 

To me, what makes Yellowjackets one of the best shows of 2023 is not the cast or premise – though they are both incredible. Instead, it is the way the show discusses the lingering impact horrific trauma has on a person, as well as the struggles of girlhood in general. Out in the wilderness, the team eventually finds an old abandoned cabin in which to take shelter, and slowly become convinced that something supernatural is happening to them. They find the skeletal remains of a man in the cabin’s attic, and a strange symbol carved into its floor and on several trees. Taissa begins sleepwalking in some sort of fugue state where someone or something else seems to be in control. Charlotte “Lottie” Matthews, whose fate remains unknown in season one, starts having strange visions and prophetic dreams. Thus, Lottie quickly becomes the de facto spiritual leader of the group and personifies this supposed supernatural force as “the Wilderness.”

Despite all of this, the show is careful to never definitively confirm whether Something was out there with the team, or if it was all something they created to justify their violent rituals and eventual cannibalism. The symbols could have been carved by the dead man in the attic. Taissa’s sleepwalking could just be her mind trying to cope with the life-altering trauma she just experienced. Lottie had been on antipsychotic medication for most of her childhood, and only began seeing things after her medication ran out. Haunted by the things they did in the name of a supposed “God,” the surviving Yellowjackets are stuck in an indefinite limbo, neither able to absolve themselves of all guilt, or able to face the past and move on. And when the five of them are inextricably drawn back together in the present and get tangled up in each other’s increasingly bad decisions, we are again forced to wonder whether Something is bringing them together, or if their unprocessed group trauma is severely impacting their judgment skills.

Another thing that I find refreshing about Yellowjackets is that in spite of all the horrific things the girls go through and do, this is still a show about scared, complicated teenagers. No one in the wilderness is truly painted as a villain, because they are all young, vulnerable people forced to make impossible choices that most adults would also struggle with. Lottie is not portrayed as some evil mastermind lost in her madness, she actually believes that the Wilderness is trying to protect them at first. She tries to use her newfound “gift” to hold the group together and bring them comfort, even as winter sets in and the bonds of friendship are truly tested. Even when the team does turn to cannibalism to survive, it is as a last resort. They create rules and rituals that seem fair to them, and attempt to find order in inherently volatile circumstances.

While “Yellowjackets” can be gory and hard to watch sometimes due to its setting in the harsh, unforgiving wilderness, after a few episodes it starts to feel like a framework for the true focus of the show: the relationships between the survivors, in both the current and past timelines. The violence may feel shocking at times, but it’s never gratuitous – there’s always a purpose, a deeper meaning. For example, when the group first engages in cannibalism it is not borne of frenzied, desperate starvation (though that does eventually transpire); it is borne from grief, of love and shame. Even in the present timeline, when the survivors are estranged and have decades of unspoken secrets and anger between them, that fierce loyalty is still there, even if all it does is make them worse. In the end, “Yellowjackets” is a show that questions whether the past comes back to haunt us, or if we haunt ourselves.

The Last of Us, both the video game and the TV show, have been a sensation in the entertainment industry. The game, released in 2013, was a critical and commercial success, due in part to its gripping story, intense action and compelling characters. The show, just recently premiering as of January, seeks to adapt the story of the 2013 game, in a mostly faithful fashion. The show is packed with an all-star cast, such as “Mandalorian” star Pedro Pascal as the lead role of Joell. It is also backed by an excellent narrative team with Neil Druckman, who directed the “original game” and Craig Mazin, who has had HBO success with hits like “Chernobyl”.

On the story side, both the game and the show serve as a gripping and emotional tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic world taken over by the cordyceps infection. The main characters, Joel and Ellie, are both complex and likable. Their evolving relationship drives the story forward as they seek to travel across this new-world United States. The show builds on the game’s story by delving deeper into the characters and their relationships. The producers also introduced new characters and storylines to keep the audience hooked.

Despite the game already being very cinematic in its presentation, the live-action nature of the TV show makes the violence and drama even more visceral than before. The show’s visual effects are also impressive and create an immersive world, full of danger and excitement. Playstation and Naughty Dog, who are responsible for the development of the game, are bound to see lucrative  synergistic success from the show. Sales for The Last of Us Part 1 on PS5 have already gone up with the announcement of a season 2, which will adapt the events of the second game in the series. 

The Last of Us game and TV show are both incredible pieces of art that have captivated audiences. If the show is to maintain its faithful relationship to its source material, viewers are set for a heartbreaking yet warming journey that will produce lasting feelings. The show builds on what the game set up and is sure to be a hit for fans of the game. Both the game and show are must-sees, and it’s clear why The Last of Us saga is so beloved. As of date, four4 episodes have been released and five more are on the way. Episodes air at 8 P.M central every Sunday night on HBO Max.

Bond stated that a purpose of having a senior show is that it is good representation of the seniors’ careers so far as artists. It is also a way for friends and family to experience the results of what students have learned in their studio classes. The senior exhibit is graded by the faculty of the art department in order to determine how well student artists have retained the information they have learned during their time in the department.

Each student chose to display pieces in a variety of mediums. The title of the show, “Random Access Memories,” reflects the choice to not have an overall theme, but to rather choose artworks that instead showcase how the students evolved as artists. However, the students both state that their own artwork is distinct and different from each other.

“For the most part, I would describe [my artwork in the show] as pieces of life one would experience along the way,” Burdette said.

Fantasy with a mix of realism is the preferred style of Bond. She stated that she enjoys experimenting with size distortion while also working with miniatures, sometimes at a 1:20 scale.

The mediums of the student artists also differ from one another. Burdette focused on printmaking because he enjoyed the process of creating a print. On the other hand, Bond enjoys both acrylic and oil painting. The versatility of the medium is appealing to Bond as well as how forgiving the paint is if you make a mistake.

Jackson finds that photography allows him to “create art in the moment.” His works are focused on nature and the emotions it elicits.

Both Bond and Burdette state that being adaptable to change is one of the most important concepts they learned while in the art department. The process of creating is not always a fast process and sometimes patience is the best response, according to Bond. She stated that she has grown more patient as she’s worked in the studio and that creating art has caused her to approach problems from different angles in order to achieve her desired result.

“Stuff isn’t always going to turn out the way you think it is, but it can still turn out good just not in the way you expected it to,” Burdette stated.

Testing your limits is what Jackson has taken away from his studio art minor.

“This basically means to give it your all with whatever you’re creating. Don’t be afraid to test your limits,” said Jackson.

The artwork by Bond, Burdette and Jackson will be displayed in the Stocksdale Gallery on the second floor of Brown Hall. The exhibit will officially open April 9 at 2 p.m. with an artist’s talk beginning at 3 pm.

Cover photo courtesy of Drake Burdette