It’s the biggest, most extravagant live event of the year and during Kendrick Lamar’s 13-minute Super Bowl LIX performance, the rapper reminded fans exactly why he’s one of the biggest names in hip-hop today.
The rapper started his performance by bringing out Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam who acted as the moderator of the performance. Lamar began the show atop a 1987 Buick Grand National GNX, the rare car for which his album is named and had appearances by SZA, Serena Williams, and DJ Mustard.
The rapper performed a selection of his hits including ‘Squabble Up,’ ‘HUMBLE,’ and ‘DNA’. However, it was his Drake diss ‘Not Like Us’ that had everyone talking. The star brought out Drake’s ex Serena Williams during the performance dancing and crip-walking to the diss track that just became the most decorated song of the year at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Before performing the record of the year, Lamar said, “I want to play their favourite song, but you know they love to sue,” likely referring to Drake’s lawsuit against his own record label UMG, which was filed in January. During Lamar’s halftime performance, however, he noticeably did not say the word “paedophile” where it appears in the song’s original lyrics.
Throughout the 13-minute performance, Lamar played hits ‘Squabble Up,’ ‘HUMBLE,’ ‘DNA,’ ‘euphoria,’ ‘man at the garden,’ ‘peekaboo,’ ‘Luther’ and ‘All the Stars’ with SZA, ‘Not Like Us,’ and ‘TV OFF’ with Mustard.
Taylor Swift fans believed that the pop star would join the rapper on stage to perform their ‘Bad Blood’ remix, however, the singer opted to stay in the stands to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce who played for the Kansas Chiefs. Unfortunatrly, however, the Philidelphia Eagles came out tops this year.
Ahead of the performance in a press conference with Apple Music, Lamar teased that fans can expect “storytelling” with his show. “I think I’ve always been very open about storytelling through, through all my catalogue and my history of music, and I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on.”
Watch the full performance below and read more music news here.
