Talk about seizing the moment – the NFL Super Bowl halftime show has rarely captured the zeitgeist as precisely as it did this year with headliner Kendrick Lamar.
This was no victory lap or coronation. It was a stage to showcase an artist completely in command of his craft and a brief rest stop before his US and Canada stadium tour begins in April.
At the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Lamar – the first solo rapper to headline – delivered a tight, boisterous 13-minute set, much of which teased whether he'd perform the Drake-baiting Not Like Us. But we’ll get to that later.
As the lights dimmed, the show opened with the unmistakable voice of actor Samuel L Jackson in character as historic US propaganda figure Uncle Sam, wearing a star-spangled suit, declaring, “This is the great American game".
We then see Lamar, in a varsity sports jacket and gloves, hunched on the bonnet of a chrome-black Buick GNX – the car that inspired the title of his latest album, GNX – kicking off the show with a taut snippet of Bodies, an unreleased track, which defiantly compares his artistry to masterpieces in the Louvre. As the production picks up, more than a dozen red-clad dancers stream out of from the car’s passenger seat as they prepare to shadow Lamar for the majority of the performance.
Next came Squabble Up, with Lamar delivering its spidery wordplay atop a staircase – a track destined to be a highlight of his coming tour. Bouncy and sleek, it’s perhaps the closest Lamar has come to crafting a club banger, driven by a pulsating synth line and a fabulous sample of Debbie Deb’s 1980s hit When I Hear Music.
An exasperated Jackson then returns to the sidelines of the stage with a pep talk reminiscent of his role in the 2005 basketball drama, Coach Carter. “No. Too reckless, too loud. Too ghetto,” he chastens. “Mr Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up.”
The set then transitions as Lamar delivers back-to-back hits, Humble and DNA, from his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning album Damn. Humble, performed within a grid of expressionless dancers, echoed the striking visuals of its music video, while the latter, blended with 2024’s horn-led Euphoria, had Lamar marauding across the field with his troupe, mirroring the song’s paranoid intensity.
Not interested in conjuring any more of the past, Lamar lasered in on two tracks from GNX – first, another snippet of the reflective Man at the Garden, huddled under a street lamp, before launching into the heaving Peekaboo. He teased the crowd with the declaration, “I want to perform my favourite song,” punctuated by a brief snippet of Not Like Us.
The ploy worked, leaving the thrilled audience wondering if Lamar would actually go so far as to perform his much-discussed diss track on stage.
The question lingered as a red-clad SZA, co-headliner of Lamar’s coming tour, glided onto the stage for soulful renditions of the sultry Luther and All the Stars. Lamar then launched into the opening verse of Not Like Us, delivering sharp barbs at Drake, while omitting the most scathing lines. It felt less like a crescendo and more like an inevitability, as he closed the show with the high-energy TV Off.
In an interview with Apple Music before the show, Lamar sought to downplay the vicious and, at times, tawdry nature of his battle with Drake, likening it to a heated sports rivalry. With his competitor vanquished and Lamar celebrating on the Super Bowl stage, his performance felt like the start of an enduring hip-hop championship reign.
Drake barbs weren't the only controversy sparked by the performance. Towards the end of the show, one of the dancers unfurled a banner combining the flags of Palestine and Sudan during his performance of Not Like Us. The image could initially be seen on the live feed of the performance around the 11-minute and 20-second mark.
The move prompted a response from the NFL, which released a statement confirming that the dancer was part of the show's cast and had been removed from the field.
"We commend security for quickly detaining the individual who displayed the flag," the league stated. "He was a part of the 400-member field cast. The individual hid the item in his possession and unveiled it late in the show. No one involved with the production was aware of his intent."
Super Bowl halftime show organisers, Roc Nation, also addressed the incident, clarifying that the act was not authorised. "The individual's actions were neither planned nor part of the production and were never included in any rehearsals," the company stated.
