Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music halftime show at Super Bowl LIX was nothing short of spectacular — with surprise appearances from Samuel L. Jackson, SZA and even Serena Williams.
Lamar has never shied away from a political statement in his work, and of course the halftime show on what is widely seen to be the biggest night in television of the year, is no exception. The performance opened with Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, introducing the show as the “Great American game.”
Lamar began knelt over a car, singing an unreleased snippet he released to his YouTube channel in anticipation for his Nov. 2024 album “GNX,” when dancers dressed in red, white and blue began pouring out of the car.
“The revolution is about to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy,” Lamar proclaimed before performing “squabble up.”
This moment gave me chills, especially to think that one of the most controversial guests of the night — President Donald Trump — was watching this.
“Too loud! Too reckless! Too ghetto!” Uncle Sam interrupted before “HUMBLE.” began. The dancers lined up in an American flag formation with a distinct separation where Lamar stood. The dancers scattered, leading into “DNA.” and then “euphoria,” one of Lamar’s diss tracks on Drake released last spring.
Lamar is completely magnetic on stage — I could not take my eyes off the screen the entire time. Every moment felt like something big that you didn’t want to miss was coming next, and each song was better than the last.
An acapella version of “man at the garden” came next, with dancers surrounding him under a lamppost, until Uncle Sam interrupted again to request that the “scorekeeper deduct one life.”
He then began “peekaboo,” but stopped to debate with dancers.
“I wanna play they favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” he announced, with the hauntingly catchy strings of “Not Like Us” playing between his interactions with the dancers. This is in reference to Drake’s recent lawsuit against Lamar’s record label, Universal Music Group, for promoting “Not Like Us,” for defamation.
Lamar teases the audience and holds back at this point, revealing surprise guest SZA, dressed in all red and sounding as beautiful as ever, to join him for “luther” and “All the Stars.”
Uncle Sam returned, praising Lamar saying, “That’s what America wants!” until the moment we had been waiting for, when “Not Like Us,” came in.
“40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music,” Lamar remarked, a reference to what Black Americans were falsely promised after the Civil War, “They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.”
“Not Like Us” was worth the wait — dancers surrounded Lamar for the first verse until exploding outwards; the camera then showed Serena Williams crip-walking on a lamppost. This moment was iconic, as the tennis player was widely criticized for doing the same dance after winning the gold medal in the 2012 Olympics and was rumored to have dated Drake back in 2011.
The performance ended with “tv off,” where DJ Mustard, a co-producer on the track as well as on “Not Like Us,” joined Lamar on stage. This finale was electric, with dancers multiplying on every part of the stage and the camera circling Lamar featuring the 65,000+ fans in the background.
I wish this performance could have been an hour long — Lamar has so many hits from his 10+ year career but stuck to mostly recent songs — which isn’t surprising considering the year he has had.
“Not Like Us,” broke records with 21 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart, swept the Grammys with 5 awards including Song of the Year and “GNX” received 242.3 million in its first 4 days, according to Billboard.
You could spend hours dissecting each moment of Super Bowl LIX’s halftime show’s symbolism and artwork — but if that’s not your speed, watch it simply for its undeniable entertainment and Lamar’s captivating stage presence. There is no doubt this will go down as one of the most important, most powerful performances of his career.
This story was written by Annie Goode. She can be reached at annie.goode@marquette.edu.
