Updated February 10, 2025 at 00:20 AM ET

For a few minutes on Sunday evening, the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans was teleported 1,895 miles away to the city of Compton, Calif. Kendrick Lamar, the first solo rapper to headline the NFL Super Bowl halftime show, is well known for holding up the torch of West Coast hip-hop and burning it bright for all to see.

With the biggest captive audience of his career — around 65,000 fans in the Superdome and millions more at home — Lamar's performance conjured a medley of songs mostly pulled from his recent album, GNX. As a respected lyricist, he's always been adamant about upholding the artform and sport of rap, no matter how politically incorrect or inconvenient that commitment may be.

For America's annual night of God, country and football, Lamar played into fears that he's too dangerous for the country's biggest stage with sinister pleasure, making it clear that he would not soften his contempt or his approach for the mass audience.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson opened the show dressed as a satirical Uncle Sam, who would spend the entire set leering at Lamar's every move, warning not to do anything "too loud, too reckless, too ghetto."

In response, Lamar went scorched-earth on the rival that he spent the last year burying and positioned himself as a prophet of America's messy reality.

"The revolution 'bout to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guys," the 37-year-old said. As dozens of dancers poured out from a shiny black Buick GNX, Lamar jumped off the stage to perform "squabble up," and then segued into his 2017 single, "HUMBLE." Dancers dressed in red, white and blue marched into a stars-and-stripes-shaped formation, with Lamar positioned as a defiant rip right down the center of the flag.

"Do you really know how to play the game?" Uncle Samuel L. scolded. "Then tighten up!"

The highly anticipated performance was already the source of some controversy before it even aired. At issue: whether or not Lamar would include his 2024 hit single, "Not Like Us" in the performance. The song, which came out of a feud with fellow star Drake, quickly became one of Lamar's signature hits, setting streaming records and winning him both the record of the year and song of the year prizes at last week's Grammy Awards. It is also at the center of an ongoing lawsuit.

In January, Drake's attorneys filed a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, the parent company behind both rappers' record labels, accusing the corporation of distributing and heavily promoting "Not Like Us" as a way of damaging the Toronto rhymer's reputation. The song includes lyrics accusing Drake of being a pedophile and a "colonizer" of hip-hop culture. In his lawsuit, Drake argues that the record company knows that the accusations are false but promoted them anyway.

As Lamar performed other GNX tracks like "man at the garden" and "peekaboo," he knew the moment everyone was waiting for. He hinted heavily at the controversy a few times throughout his set, smirking when the string instrumental of "Not Like Us" first blared through the superdome. "But you know they love to sue," he quipped.

But rather than playing the full song, Lamar pump faked, throwing the spotlight to R&B superstar SZA to perform her verse on "luther," their current top 10 hit from GNX, followed by the two artists' collaboration "All the Stars" off Black Panther: The Album, the soundtrack album Lamar executive produced in 2018. The sparkling, safe, uplifting track seemed to appease Uncle Samuel -- but only for a few seconds.

It turned out that the hint before those softer songs was a setup: "They tried to rig the game but you can't fake influence," Lamar snarled as he launched into a full performance of "Not Like Us." He grinned straight to camera without skipping over Drake's name or any of the lyrical allegations. Adding insult to injury, a camera pan revealed tennis champion, Compton native (and Drake's ex-girlfriend) Serena Williams crip walking to the bop. The production even cut the music for the crowd to sing the song's most notorious line: "tryin' to strike a chord and it's probably A-minor."

Joined at centerfield by his producer, DJ Mustard, Lamar closed his halftime show with "tv off," turning the song's chorus into a taunt aimed at the audience of millions: Might as well turn your TV off now – this show won't be topped.
Copyright 2025 NPR

Copyright 2025, NPR