Published on February 25, 2025

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show

By Sophia DelGaudio
Image credit: Alicia-Idaly Molina
Kendrick Lamar played (and maybe defeated) the great American game with his halftime performance at Super Bowl LIX on Sunday.

On Sunday, much of America sat down to watch Super Bowl LIX, excited to see the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles go head-to-head for football's biggest trophy. More importantly, Kendrick Lamar delivered his highly anticipated halftime performance, drawing the largest viewership in the game's history at a whopping 133.5 million—more than the number of people who actually tuned in to the game.

The last year has been huge for Kendrick Lamar. Songs like "euphoria," "meet the grahams" and the penultimate single "Not Like Us" solidified his victory in his highly publicized feud with Drake. Just a week before the Super Bowl, Lamar took home a historic five Grammy Awards, winning in every category for which it was nominated, becoming the most decorated rap song in the history of the awards. 

That said, America, and much of the world, was looking to New Orleans on Sunday to see what Lamar would deliver. Fans and critics alike were eager to see if he would perform "Not Like Us," especially since the song is at the center of a lawsuit brought by Drake against his (and Lamar's) record label, UMG, for defamation and harassment, claiming that UMG values "corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists."

But Lamar's halftime performance was much more than the beef. His show contained a litany of political subtext, made all the more poignant with President Trump's attendance. Actor Samuel L. Jackson emceed the performance as a satirized Uncle Sam—a historical symbol of American government overreach—who welcomed viewers to the "great American game," referencing not only football's dominance in the U.S. or the set design—the buttons of a PlayStation controller—but also the game of surviving (and winning) in America.

Lamar began his performance by stating "The revolution 'bout to be televised/you picked the right time but the wrong guy," a reference to the 1970s protest song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron, which implored listeners to actually get out and protest, rather than sitting at home glued to the TV. Kendrick launched into "squabble up," which Jackson's Uncle Sam called "too loud, too reckless, too ghetto," asking him if he really knew how to play the American game, and telling him to "tighten up" and conform.

Lamar continued his performance with "HUMBLE," performing center stage in the middle of a split American flag made up of all Black dancers donning red, white and blue, symbolizing the country's political and cultural divide. The cast of dancers not only represented the flag, but also represented Bloods and Crips in L.A., soldiers marching into battle, and people marching in protest, displaying the chaotic state the U.S. is in.

Lamar then transitioned to two mellower hits with SZA, "luther," and "All the Stars," leaving his political messaging aside. Uncle Sam cheered, "This is what America wants! Nice and calm..." and told Lamar that he had almost won America's game and not to mess it up at the last second. 

In true Kendrick fashion, Lamar did not heed Uncle Sam's warning. To the delight of fans, he finally performed "Not Like Us," with a new introduction: "40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music/They tried to rig the game, but you can't fake influence." This line referenced America's broken promise to liberate slaves after the Civil War and served as a reminder that no matter how hard America—or maybe Drake—tries, Lamar's influence and status as a cultural titan cannot be questioned.

Of course, the diss track included extra jabs at Drake, with Lamar's chain with the musical symbol for the key A minor, a nod to Drake's lawsuits, and 83,000 people at the New Orleans Superdome calling Drake a pedophile. 

Despite some online backlash, the performance was well-received among AUP students. When asked if she enjoyed the show, junior Sasha Hayward said that she enjoyed the show "very much," and that she felt it wasn't "just a performance, it's there to teach you and make you think." She also believed the Super Bowl and its massive American audience made for "a really good crowd to do it too, even just to spur some thought."

Junior Lesly Meyers-Gelin said of the performance: "It was what America didn't really expect for right now... especially with Donald Trump there," and that the political themes were "what we need right now" and that she hoped "the people in attendance were actually picking up on the message and listening."

Sophomore Daniel Yslas also enjoyed the show, calling it "a great encapsulation of what's going on in today's political messaging, where we prop up artists and comedians instead of choosing to go with actual leaders," referencing Lamar's line about picking the right time but the wrong guy. 

Lamar finished his performance with one of the biggest songs off of his new album GNX, "tv off," bringing out Mustard, the producer of both that track and "Not Like Us," for an electric finale. As the lights dimmed, the words "Game Over" lit up in the stands, perhaps signaling that the feud was officially settled, with Kendrick on top. More broadly, Lamar might have been telling Uncle Sam and the American government that he was done playing their game.

Ending with "tv off," also circled back to his reference to Gil Scott-Heron, urging America to "turn this TV off," step away from social media and take real action to beat the Great American Game.

Written by

Sophia DelGaudio

Sophia DelGaudio is a third-year student at The American University of Paris majoring in International Comparative Politics. She has special interests in politics, pop culture, and music.