Feb. 9 (UPI) — Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar made good on his promise to “put rap culture on the forefront” at Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime performance, which featured special guests SZA and DJ Mustard.
Lamar opened the halftime show at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans atop a 1987 Buick GNX, the namesake of his 2024 album that netted him five new Grammy awards earlier this month.
Flanked by dancers dressed in red, white and blue, he performed a medley from GNX, including “Squabble Up,” “Euphoria,” “Man at the Garden” and “Peekaboo.” He brought SZA on stage to join him for “Luther” and to revisit their 2018 hit “All the Stars” from the Black Panther soundtrack.
❤️ @KendrickLamar + @SZA #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/OZBFLMhKp8— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Lamar also performed a selection from his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN, including “Humble” and “DNA.”
At the top of his performance, Lamar proclaimed to the audience, “The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.”
He closed out the show by returning to GNX, singing the notorious Drake diss track “Not Like Us.” The performance left fans stunned after cameras panned to tennis superstar Serena Williams crip walking along to the song.
Williams briefly dated Drake in 2015 and the rapper was rumored to be referencing the tennis star’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, in his 2022 song “Middle of the Ocean.” Both Williams and Lamar grew up in Compton, Calif.
From Compton to NOLA. @SerenaWilliams @KendrickLamar #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/mnzuP7fJ1N— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Lamar brought collaborator DJ Mustard on stage for his final song, “TV Off.”
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as American icon Uncle Sam, introduced Lamar’s Super Bowl performance and had a number of appearances throughout. After “Squabble Up,” Jackson interjected that the act was “too loud, too unruly, too ghetto.”
.@SamuelLJackson! #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/cTb7yRoEzu— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Ahead of Sunday’s performance, Lamar told reporters he planned to “put rap culture on the forefront, where it needs to be” during the halftime show.
“It reminds me of the essence and the core response of rap and hip hop and how far it can go,” he said during a media preview of the performance Thursday. “To represent it on this type of stage, it’s like everything I’ve worked for and everything I believed in as far as the culture. I live and die by it.”
Lamar previously performed at Super Bowl LVI in 2022 as a guest alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige. He released his latest album, GNX, in November.
The 37-year-old rapper has won 22 Grammy awards, including five during this year’s Feb. 2 ceremony. He also took home a Pulitzer Prize in music in 2018 for his album DAMN.
Heading into halftime, the Philadelphia Eagles led the Kansas City Chiefs 24-0.
