By: Theo Gerson ‘27
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest sporting events every year. With Kendrick Lamar being the headline for the halftime show, this year was no different. Kendrick Lamar was announced as the headline performer on September 8th. Previously, Lamar was featured in the 2022 halftime show, and fans were extremely excited to see him perform on the big stage after he released his hit song, “Not Like Us,” which was one of the most popular songs of 2024. Kendrick later announced that R&B superstar, SZA, would join him on the grand stage.
SZA and Lamar are extremely good friends and have had multiple song features dating back to 2014. Just a week after winning five Grammy awards, Lamar was ready to take the stage.
The performance opened with a surprise appearance by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, who played the role of Uncle Sam and introduced the Super Bowl performance as “the great American game.” We then saw Lamar on top of the iconic car from his GNX album cover, singing an unreleased cut to hype up and promote his new album. The camera eventually cut back to Samuel L. Jackson, who criticized Lamar for not knowing how to “play the game.” Lamar responded to this by performing one of his most popular songs, “HUMBLE,” while forming an American flag with his background dancers. Lamar then played more hits, “DNA,” and “Euphoria,” the first diss track against his rival, Drake. During “man at the garden” and “peekaboo,” Kendrick made his first jab at Drake, and said he wanted to sing everyone’s favorite song, “but they like to sue,” referencing Drake’s current lawsuit against Lamar. After making this jab, the camera panned over to SZA singing “luther,” a song she is featured on in Lamar’s newest album. The duo then sang “All the Stars,” after which Lamar teased singing “Not Like Us” one last time until he finally sang it. Fans were shocked to see Lamar even say Drake’s name while rapping. Lamar finished the performance by performing “tv off,” and had the camera end on the words “game over” that were illuminated on the crowd.
The performance led to many mixed reactions. Some said it was one of the best performances we have seen in a while, though critics said it was one of the worst halftime shows in recent years. Lamar’s performance was no doubt different from others in the past with all his shady references and the fact that he mostly performed on the ground and had four different stages. Most of the past performances have had artists sing from high up and have only had one stage, like Rihanna’s 2023 performance. Fans also had highly negative things to say about the time SZA got to perform on stage, as she only performed for about two or three minutes, and fans expected way more from her.
This was one of the best halftime shows I have seen. The storytelling was beautifully executed. The only thing I did not like was the amount of time SZA got to perform, but other than that, this performance was one of the best in a while. What did you think about the halftime show? Did it live up to your expectations?