I’m not sure when else you’d see a Pulitzer Prize winner performing the halftime show at Super Bowl LIV, but 2025 owes us one, apparently. And so, Kendrick Lamar (who also won five Grammys at last week’s ceremony) hit the stage along with “unexpected” guest SZA — to perform 15 minutes of his biggest hits as the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs hit their locker rooms to prepare for the second half.
Themed “The Great American Game,” the performance was introduced by Samuel L. Jackson (in the guise of Uncle Sam), and took place on a stage designed to look like a game board. Kenny started the performance atop the titular GNX, from which emerged a truly unrealistic number of dancers as he rapped an unreleased track. Then, “Squabble Up” set things off before Sam returned to criticize him for being “too loud, too unruly, too ghetto.” But all that did was prompt a magnetic performance of “Humble.” “DNA” followed as the performance spread across the field right before he launched into Drake’s second-worst nightmare, “Euphoria.” He revamped “Man At The Garden” as a doo-wop number under a streetlamp, then went into “N95.”
SZA’s appearance came during “Luther,” with the singer clad in red leather, offering a powerful contrast to K. Dot’s cerulean ensemble. She stuck around for the performance of “All Of The Stars,” to the approval of Sam… who was immediately disgusted to hear the familiar strains of “Not Like Us,” complete with an C-walking appearance from Drake’s rumored ex, Serena Williams. Just before starting the song, Kendrick addressed his nemesis’ latest misstep: “I want to play their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.” MUSTAAAARRRD popped out for the finale, “TV Off.”
Ahead of his performance, Kendrick got some helpful advice from Usher. Last year’s Super Bowl performer addressed the Compton rapper on The Jennifer Hudson Show, saying, “The one thing that I would say is savor the moment, because you get obsessed in trying to build the best performance, but you don’t realize that it’s really about enjoying it, right? It might not be perfect, everything may not go exactly the way it’s supposed to, but if you are in your mind and stuck trying to make something perfect, you’re not going to look up and smell the flowers and realize, ‘Wait a minute, I’m here, and I get a chance to have this moment, and I’m not going to get it again, I’m not going to get this moment back.’”
“So, my encouragement to him is to really be present,” he continued. “I hope that he uses the moment well. There’s a lot that could be said, there’s a lot to be said for where hip-hop has come from. There’s a lot to be said for that young man and how he’s completely been an incredible benchmark for what it is to be an artist.”
Watch Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show performance above.
