Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: From Samuel L. Jackson to SZA

Kendrick Lamar, has been making his rounds throughout all social media.

From his public rap beef with Drake, to winning multiple Grammys for his most viral song, Not Like Us, it seems the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper, has yet to slow down. Lamar was this year’s Super Bowl’s Halftime Show headliner. Even though this wasn’t his first official appearance in the Super Bowl Halftime show, Lamar is still making history.

Lamar stunned as being the first rapper to ever solo-headline a Super Bowl Halftime Show, which took place in New Orleans.

In his 13-minute performance, Lamar presents certain classics from his discography as well as new material from his latest album, GNX. At the start of the performance, the viewers were greeted by Uncle Sam, who was played by actor Samuel L. Jackson, who then introduced the rapper on stage.

As the lights dimmed, one beam of light finally shined on Lamar, crouching on top of a Buick GNX, teasing an unnamed snippet from his recent album.

“The revolution is about to be televised, you picked the right time but the wrong guy!” Lamar said in his lyrics.

As he performed this snippet, his backup dancers climbed out of the car, representing American flag colors: Red, white, and blue.

Once he performed his snippet, the performance transitioned to Squabble Up, where Lamar orchestrated it around the field.

As the dancers lined up, Uncle Sam soon cut in to say “No, too loud, too reckless, too… ghetto! Mr Lamar! Do you really know how to play the game?”

Moments later, Kendrick started diving into his classics such as HUMBLE, which is known to be Lamar’s most viral song currently, this song comes from his album D.A.M.N and as the song played, the dancer turned around formed an American Flag.

HUMBLE, wasn’t the only song to be featured from D.A.M.N straight after it, the rapper soon performed DNA as the background dancers scattered. Shortly after, the performance quickly became more active as Euphoria started playing.

“Score keeper, deduct one life” Uncle Sam cut in again. After performing some of his classics, Lamar started playing newer material like Peakboo, it didn’t take long for the rapper to start teasing his most popular song, Not Like Us.

“I wanna play their favorite song but you know they love to sue.” Lamar stated in his performance to his backup dancers. The remark seemingly was a dig at Drake, who sued their record label, Universal Music Group, over Not Like Us as Lamar briefly touched on their feud.

Referencing the highlight of the beef with Drake, Not Like Us, was one of the notable diss tracks to come from the rap battle. With billions of streams, the song was known as the record of the year at the Grammys a week prior.

Fans speculated whether Lamar was going to perform the viral song or not, given the accusations that Lamar made against Drake in the song, such as him being a “certified pedophile.” Kendrick’s allegation led to Drake filing the aforementioned lawsuit against Universal Music Group for defamation after the song went viral.

“I’ve always had a passion about bringing that in whatever stage I’m on” Lamar stated.

After the song was teased, SZA joined the stage as a guest performer. The singer was also featured on Lamar’s recent album, which included songs such as Luther and Gloria.

SZA took to the stage to perform their hit feature All the Stars and Luther.

“That’s what America wants, nice and calm” Uncle Sam said.

Soon after much anticipation, Lamar soon performed Not Like Us. The song was played less explicitly, as Lamar removed the word “pedophile” from his lyrics; he didn’t pull all his punches when he looked directly at the camera name-dropping Drake.

Things went further after Lamar brought famous Tennis player, Serena William’s to the stage, dancing to the diss track. In the final stretch of the performance, Lamar brought out DJ Mustard during the last song TV Off to close out the show.

This won’t be the last time, Kendrick will appear on stage since both him and SZA will be going on tour in the spring and summer, with tickets selling soon.