For the second time in four years, Los Angeles superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar was centre stage for today’s Super Bowl half-time show, and this time he got to keep the spotlight for himself.
Unlike many Super Bowl half-time shows, the set didn’t use much in the way of big, flashy production, depending instead on Kendrick’s arresting wordplay and skills on the mic and some incredible choreography to make an impact ABC News reports.
A little star power helped too. The iconic Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, introduced the show and appeared as a recurrent character throughout the set.
After Jackson’s introduction, Lamar did what he does best: spat a deft, rapid-fire string of lines from his recent track, ‘Bodies’.
He did so in front of a Buick Grand National GNX, the same make of vehicle he was driven home from the hospital in as a baby, and the namesake of his latest album, hinting at the set list to come.
Before the show, speculation about Lamar’s set list was rife: Lamar has a wealth of material to draw from across his six albums, but comments he made last week suggested there’d be a greater focus on his most recent material.
“It’s very hard for me to live in the past,” Kendrick said in last week’s Super Bowl Half-time Show press conference.
“This is me, this is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on the journey, though, you know? I want that energy to ooze out into the televisions and to the people that’s in that building.”
It’s a big call, considering the depth of his catalogue, but given he played two of his most enduring earlier hits in his 2022 performance, one can’t blame him for wanting to showcase where he’s at now.
Two songs from acclaimed 2017 album DAMN. followed — Hottest 100 winner ‘HUMBLE.’ and the arresting ‘DNA.’ — before the feud between Kendrick and Drake inevitably came to the fore thanks to a taste of last year’s ‘Euphoria’, which Kendrick released early in the infamous battle.
Kendrick next teased his mega hit and Drake diss track ‘Not Like Us’ to a massive roar from the crowd but quickly sidestepped it, cryptically saying “I want to play their favourite song, but you know they love to sue.”
Instead, he launched into ‘Luther’ and ‘All The Lights’, the two songs featuring SZA, who was in typically dazzling form.
The crowd does eventually get what they want when the bouncing beat of ‘Not Like Us’ comes back. This time, Kendrick doesn’t cut it short. He skipped the word ‘paedophile’, but not the lyric “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor”, which the crowd gleefully roars in unison.
The set ended with another highlight from the new album. Kendrick collaborator Mustard clutched a football as Kendrick performed ‘TV Off’ as his big send-off. At its conclusion, the stadium went dark and illuminated bracelets in the crowd spelled out the words GAME OVER.
Whether that means Kendrick is putting a full stop on the Drake beef, or just making a cute football pun for no reason, we’ll need to wait and see.
Super Bowl half-time shows are renowned for surprise collaborations, but Kendrick didn’t dig around in the Rolodex too much for this year’s show.
Samuel L. Jackson was undoubtedly the biggest surprise, his appearance was beautifully woven into the set to provide a through line.
We already knew that SZA, a global superstar in her own right, would join Kendrick and her voice gave the performance an injection of grandiose class as she belted out the anthemic choruses.
Mustard, who has been a producer of some renown for many years, is having a real moment in the sun right now. Kendrick’s screaming of his name in ‘TV Off’ went viral following its release late last year, and in just the past week, he’s been centre stage at the Grammys accepting an award, and on the field at the Super Bowl clutching a football.
Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted another massive celebrity dancing onstage. Tennis great Serena Williams also hails from Compton, California, the same home town as Kendrick, and was rumoured to be been romantically involved with Drake in the early 2010s.
wow, lovely