Kendrick Lamar commanded one of the world's most high-profile stages Sunday as the Super Bowl's
halftime headliner, yet another feather in the cap of the rap laureate
who has ascended to new heights of pop stardom.
Lamar performed a string of his classics while toying with his audience who
had one major question: would he perform "Not Like Us," the searing diss
track that served as the knockout blow in his eyebrow-raising rap
battle with Drake?
In a word? Yes.
The wildly infectious hit released in May 2024 hears the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lamar -- the first solo rap artist
to helm a halftime show at the Super Bowl, which this year saw the
Philadelphia Eagles pummel the Kansas City Chiefs -- use his punchlines
to accuse Drake of pedophilia.
"I wanna perform their favorite song," he said at one point during the 13-minute set --
the Grammy-winning track's ubiquitous, instantly recognizable bass line
resounding -- "but you know they love to sue."
He offered his classics like "Humble" and "DNA" as well as tracks from his
most recent album "GNX" -- he began the set atop the Buick Grand
National it's named for -- including "Squabble Up" before sending fans
into a frenzy in delivering the goods, a knife-twisting rendition of
"Not Like Us."
Lamar dropped the profanity and the world "pedophile" but didn't stop short of the money
line, rapping "tryna strike a chord and it's probably A-minoooooor" on
live television in front of tens of thousands of spectators and an
estimated 100 million viewers.
In delivering the lyric "say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young," Lamar
stared right into the camera, dancing on the Canadian rapper's
rap-battle grave while sporting a chain with a massive pendant -- a
lower-case a.
The performance is all but sure to kick off more legal wrangling: Drake, the reigning
highest-grossing rapper, recently filed a bombshell defamation suit
against his own record label Universal Music Group, which also
represents Lamar.
Drake is notably suing UMG and not Lamar himself, but questions abounded
leading into the Super Bowl set over whether performing the song on one
of the top global stages could open the door to further litigation.
- Uncle Sam, surprise protestor -
"Not Like Us" dominated the set but it was also a performance that paid homage to the 37-year-old rapper's expansive oeuvre.