Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 halftime show performance in New Orleans was nothing short of spectacular. From the moment he took the stage, it was clear that the audience was in for an unforgettable experience. Kendrick, who is a rapper more known for his powerful lyrics and for hiding an underlying theme within his unworldly performances, did not disappoint as he delivered the most meaningful Super Bowl halftime show yet.
The show opened with Samuel L. Jackson who presented himself as Uncle Sam, throughout the performance he would often critique Lamar’s performance for being too loud, or too ghetto, by saying that Lamar “isn’t playing the game right”. Uncle Sam is I believe meant to be a personification of the United States which oftentimes is a hard critic of “rap culture” including Kendrick.
Samuel L. Jackson refers to Kendrick’s performance as the “Great American game” which is a direct reference to the popularity and effect that football has on society. The stage is split into four main escorts each representing a button on a PlayStation controller which again I believe has a hidden message about how many Americans are being played like video game characters.
Getting into the performance itself he opened up with the hit song “Squabble Up” from his latest album “GNX”. This is a great song to lead off with as it was the biggest single off his latest album charted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is a high-energy song to get the crowd involved early in the performance.
He then played his two biggest hits of his 2018 album “DAMN” those being ‘DNA’ and “Humble”.these two songs are exactly what I wanted him to perform as I was worried he would do all songs of his new album but playing these two throwback hits was great for the hardcore Kendrick fans. While performing these songs the background dancers came together to form an American flag that was split down the middle most likely highlighting many things that cause a divide in our nation such as racism, or political divides.
The next song he performed was “Euphoria” which was one of the 8 diss tracks traded back and forth between him and Drake. This song brought the energy as Kendrick boastfully bragged about his success while coming from a rough neighborhood, in comparison to Drake who doesn’t share many of the life experiences Kendrick did growing up.
After this song, he performed another song off his latest album “Man in the Garden”. This was my favorite part of the performance as he rapped with no instrumental, just the slow beat performed by a group of people who dressed as if they were from Kendrick’s hometown of Compton. Following the song, Jackson came into the shot and claimed that Kendrick used his “homeboys’ as a culture cheat code and told the scorekeeper to deduct one life.
After this, Kendrick went into the red Playstation X button and performed another boastful, high-energy song with Peekaboo, which isn’t one of his larger hits, but Kendrick proved he doesn’t have to play his biggest songs to get the crowd going.
After this, he said he wanted to perform the people’s favorite song and teased the beat of Not Like U, which is a strongly worded straight-up attack, and his rap rival Drake. Instead, he decides to slow it down and brings out guest star SZA to help him perform the hit song “Luther” and a hit song from the Black Panther playlist “All of the Stars.”
After this he ends his performance by once again tying the message together by saying his performance was “bigger than the music” and that America “tries to rig the game, but they can’t rig influence” he then performs Not Like Us his attack on drake which blew everyone in the stadium’s mind, as it seems he ended the ‘war’ with drake with a triumphant victory as the whole stadium sang the word “A-Minor” insinuating that drake was involved in a relationship with an underage girl. He then brought out popular artist DJ Mustard to dance with him for what seemed to be a celebration of rap culture and his victories with the outstanding performance of “TV OFF.” as the performance ends, the message is seen in the crowd reading ‘GAME OVER.”
From the strong messages portrayed to the biggest rap beef since Tupac and Biggie seemingly ending to the overall great music and choreography, Kendrick, with this performance, was able to prove why he is what he says he is. The G.O.A.T of the rap game.
