Kendrick Lamar became the first solo rapper to headline the Super Bowl halftime show as a solo rapper on Sunday, February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Kendrick Lamar, celebrated for his virtuosic storytelling and dense lyricism, embodied his own style, fusing West Coast hip-hop with incisive social commentary. The anticipation was palpable as Lamar confidently stepped out of a gleaming black Buick GNX.
His performance was an intense, theatrical drama. Actor Samuel L. Jackson, channelling Uncle Sam, played the satirical role of the commanding figure, chiding Lamar for being “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” and telling him to “play the game.”
Yet Lamar had no intention of playing along. Across each song, he shattered constraints, mixing introspective tracks like Squabble Up and Peekaboo, and crowd-pleasers like Humble and DNA. The gesture was sleek, bold, and unapologetically Lamar—mesmerizing millions of fans in the stadium and watching worldwide.
Samuel L. Jackson’s Uncle Sam character remarked on this softer direction, jokingly stating, “That’s what America wants, nice and calm.”
At the performance’s core was the track ‘Not Like Us,’ a track that saw Kendrick Lamar take home five Grammys under his name at the 2025 Grammys, the song had been in the headlines since 2024 as it was the reason behind Lamar’s ongoing beef with Drake.
The song dropped earlier in 2024, featured lyrics that called out Drake as a “paedophile” and a “colonizer” of hip-hop culture, accusations which Drake vehemently denied. The track instantly went viral within the musical universe.
Lamar, not ignorant of the buzz, nodded to the drama during his performance, joking regarding the song to the audience. “I wanna play their favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” he said, referring to Drake’s suit against Universal Music Group (UMG) for defamation due to the lyrics in January.
The drama reached a climax when Lamar finally released the track, but with a big twist—he censored the most incendiary lyric, leaving out the word “pedophile” but still directly confronting Drake with the infamous line, “Tryin’ to strike a chord and it’s probably A minor.”
Tennis legend Serena Williams, a Compton native and Drake’s alleged ex was even seen crip-walking on stage when Kendrick Lamar was performing, further fueling the current drama between Lamar and Drake.
SZA, a regular Lamar collaborator, brought a soulful surprise to the halftime action. The pair performed Luther and All The Stars, Though SZA’s vocal strength and smooth choreography countered Lamar’s intense energy, the performance was still fueled by Lamar’s uncompromising vision.
As the performance was concluding, Lamar brought his producer, Mustard, on stage. In the closing moment, Lamar challenged the Super Bowl itself, daring viewers with the line, “Might as well turn your TV off now, this show won’t be topped.”
All the people at Lamar’s concert speculated whether he would sing ‘Not Like Us’, with the defamation lawsuit from Drake pending, as it was considered risky, but he did perform the award-winning track.
Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl performance was a cultural milestone. As the first solo rapper to headline the halftime show, he raised the bar for the genre. While the show had included rappers before as part of ensemble performances, Lamar was the first to command the stage alone.
