The Message Has Arrived
On the biggest possible stage, Kendrick Lamar again took shots at Drake during his Super Bowl LIX performance. What should have gradually become tiresome turned into an electrifying hip-hop party.
If anyone slept even worse last night than the Kansas City Chiefs football players, who suffered a historic defeat in the Super Bowl, then it was probably the rapper Drake. Kendrick Lamar was responsible for the halftime show at the NFL season’s grand finale, and it was clear that he would play “Not Like Us.” “Not Like Us” is a diss track in which Lamar takes shots at Drake, among other things, suggesting that his rival is a pedophile. Drake has just sued the record label they are both signed to because it allowed and released the alleged slander.
But “Not Like Us” is also a huge hit. The track was the most successful rap song of 2024 in the US and was only awarded five Grammys just a week ago. It is probably the most successful diss track in hip-hop history and was, therefore, unavoidable at Lamar’s Super Bowl performance. Fans speculated beforehand whether the television channel Fox would hit the censorship button or if Lamar could only play a short excerpt of the song. Instead, the rapper made “Not Like Us” the leitmotif of his entire performance.
The Philadelphia Eagles were already leading 24–0 when Lamar began rapping. Nearly 75,000 people were seated in the Superdome in New Orleans, with millions watching on TV. A hip-hop beef is an unusual subject for the halftime show at the biggest sporting event of the American TV year. The music program, therefore, often relies on nostalgia and good vibes, with the stars playing a medley of their greatest hits. Kendrick Lamar, on the other hand, mostly plays songs from his current album GNX, even beginning the performance with an excerpt from a song that has not yet been released. He sits on the hood of a Buick GNX, the 1980s car after which the album is named. Behind him, dancers in red, white, and blue pour out of the car, and shortly thereafter, on the steps of the stage set, they form the flag of the USA. A picture for a gathering behind a shared idea of the United States, which currently seems far from reality? “You picked the right time, but the wrong guy,” Lamar says while standing on the hood. Possibly, he means Donald Trump by “the wrong guy.” The director does not cut to the stands to show how they react. The United States President is in the stadium in New Orleans, not far from the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2022, Kendrick Lamar was still one of six stars under the leadership of Dr. Dre, who performed a medley of hits during the Super Bowl halftime show, and he was by far the youngest among them. Now he is the first rapper to headline a halftime show solo, including a diss track, and moreover, one who is at the peak of his popularity instead of merely managing a legacy like many halftime stars of the past. This is also the culmination of development: the Super Bowl halftime show has been firmly in the hands of hip-hop and R’n’B culture for several years now, namely since JAY-Z’s company Roc Nation took over production. That followed the devastating criticism for the 2019 halftime show, in which, of all things, the snoozers Maroon 5 performed in Atlanta, the stronghold of trap rap. Although the dominance of hip-hop in the charts has somewhat waned recently, the performances at the Super Bowl are simultaneously solidifying the genre’s status in the pop culture canon as part of a mainstream that now reaches every household, every age group, and every social stratum.
That hip-hop does not lose its rough edges is important to Kendrick Lamar. He had said in an interview with Apple Music before the Super Bowl that these rough edges were also his motivation for the feud with Drake: he wanted to remind the world that hip-hop must be biting. Lamar, the culturally acclaimed darling of the arts among rappers who has been awarded literary prizes, wants to be a dirty kid again. The Super Bowl is the biggest possible stage for this project, and Lamar enjoys playing with the tension between the event and its content. “I wanna perform they favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” he once says, obviously directed at Drake. Shortly, the piercing string sample from “Not Like Us” sounds.
Is he really doing it?
But then, first, R&B star SZA takes the stage. She is practically part of Lamar’s family: until 2022, both were at the label Top Dawg Entertainment and collaborated on many songs. Alongside Luther from GNX, they also play “All the Stars” at the Super Bowl, another bona fide hit, originally released on the soundtrack of the film Black Panther. SZA is Lamar’s only duet partner in this performance. He spares himself a parade of guest stars for the sake of greater hit density, as is often seen at the Super Bowl. Taylor Swift, for example—for whose song “Bad Blood” Lamar rapped a verse—remains in the stands, unsuccessfully cheering on her partner Travis Kelce from the Kansas City Chiefs.
“You really ‘bout to do it?” asks a group of dancers, further building tension for “Not Like Us.” And then he really does it, and the audience cheers. “Drake, I hear you like ‘em young,” raps Lamar, grinning cheekily at the camera. Whoever is operating the censorship button at Fox does not intervene. However, Lamar himself leaves out the word “pedophile.” A wordplay on the phrase “a minor” is still bellowed by 75,000 people in the stadium: the phrase can refer both to the A minor chord and to a minor person. When the chorus kicks in, Serena Williams mixes in among the dancers. That, too, is likely a dig: last year, Drake claimed to have dated Williams and dedicated love songs to her. Now she dances while he is being slandered in front of the world. The message has arrived.
Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show is not only another heavy shot against Drake, but also a hip-hop show through and through. There are no big effects, no lifts, no costume changes, hardly any fireworks. Just the rapper, a few dancers, and declarations of love for the DJ. At the finale of the performance, the Californian musician Mustard, who produced “Not Like Us,” stands on the field.
For breaks between the raps, only Samuel L. Jackson, who appears in an Uncle Sam costume, provides a pause. Not, however, to recruit Kendrick Lamar for the Army, but to motivate and criticize him like a football coach. “Too ghetto,” he shouts once—a winking comment on the fact that so much rap and so little sing-along at the Super Bowl is very unusual. Kendrick Lamar then plays his hit “HUMBLE.,” followed by “Euphoria,” another diss track from the feud with Drake.
The halftime show thus shows two sides of Kendrick Lamar. On one hand, he is an artist with high self-expectations who forgoes fanfare to put hip-hop culture in the spotlight. Subtly, he challenges the United States President and the country, among other things, through the appearance of a Black Uncle Sam. On the other hand, he is a provocateur who cannot resist the temptation to take another shot at Drake on the biggest possible stage. Both Lamars ensure a halftime show where there is too much tension in the air for a trip to the bathroom or the refrigerator. Hip-hop retains its rough edges here, and that must be highly credited to Lamar—even if one despises Drake less than he does.
As of this Wednesday, it had 133.5 million viewers, breaking the record for the most-watched NFL halftime performance ever.