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Kendrick Lamar pops out at Super Bowl LIX

The performance was a generational victory lap

LiFTED | Marcus Aurelius | 10 Feb 2025


Kendrick Lamar has been relentless in his destruction of Drake over the past year. Performing at Super Bowl LIX was the cherry on top of the cake of the biggest and most public Rap battle ever. Kendrick electrified his fans and played the song that is the most popular diss track ever, ‘Not Like Us,’ which many people thought he might not play because Drake has been in the mood to sue people recently.

As the Eagles were destroying the Chiefs 24 to 0 at halftime, the only real question about the game was Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show. Samuel L. Jackson introduced the show as Uncle Sam AKA America’s Conscious and would be around for scene changes. Kendrick popped out from atop his 1987 Buick GNX with a FREESTYLE while his dancers clad in red, white, and blue started showing up from inside the car and the trunk. Soon, he dropped into ‘Squabble Up,’ and many bets were won and lost on what song he would play first. After another Uncle Samuel interlude, Kendrick was in the middle of his dancers representing a divided American flag rapping ‘Humble’ and ‘DNA.’

After rapping ‘Peak-a-Boo’ from his latest album, GNX, he teased ‘Not Like Us’ by saying, “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue” alluding to Drake suing UMG, both rappers’ record label, and then teasing a snippet of it, but going into ‘Luther,’ his duet with SZA. Next, the TDE label mates went into ‘All the Stars,’ from 2018.

Kendrick teased ‘Not Like Us’ again, but this time really dropped into it. As the Compton MC walked in a circle, he said Drake’s name and smiled broadly, because he knew what was coming. While they edited out the word pedophile on the broadcast, the whole stadium was singing “A minor” when it mattered most. The camera panned over, and Serena Williams, a Compton native and Drake’s ex-girlfriend, was Crip-walking under a streetlight.

Then many people lost their bets because that wasn’t the end. Instead, Kendrick yelled, “MUSTAAAAAARD” and he did his verse on ‘TV Off’ when DJ Mustard came out.

Comparing Super Bowl performers is difficult because each year is so different, and Michael Jackson’s intro and Prince playing ‘Purple Rain’ in a rainstorm are really, really hard to top. Kendrick gave a generational victory lap on the biggest stage in the world.

Check out Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show below.