Kendrick Lamar was flanked dozens of dancers, thousands of football fans and at least one A-list Hollywood star (with many other watching from the stands).
Yet, none of that seemed to matter all that much because, really, the best course for enjoying the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show was to keep 100 percent focus on Kendrick Lamar.
OK, maybe more like 95 percent — since the guest appearance by the one and only SZA was also pretty special.
Still, it’s hard to remember another Super Bowl Halftime Show from the recent past were one single person dominated our attention the way Kendrick Lamar did during this break between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chief matchup at the Caesars Superdome in the great city of New Orleans.
Often, it’s the exact opposite, as the star’s performance is drowned out by all the bells and whistles and people are left talking about all the big budget theatrical effects on display.
Yet, the King of Hip-Hop didn’t need any of that as the took the stage in front of a packed house — and the biggest TV audience of the year — and just started rapping his way through one gem after another.
With the Eagles up (roughly) 487 to 0 on the Chiefs at halftime, Lamar’s set opened with a bit by Samuel Jackson, who was dressed up in all patriotic garb and was calling himself — wait for it — “Uncle Sam.”
Then Lamar appeared and started running through “Squabble Up” and other numbers from this year’s “GNX” — which may just be the greatest hip-hop album of the decades thus far — as well as other numbers from his catalog.
The main prop was a classic GNX — the proud Buick road machine that inspired the name of the rapper’s latest full-length. The Compton native rapped while standing on its hood, before jumping down to mix it up with his dancers, who were dressed in red, white and blue and — at one point — nicely mimicked the shape and design of the American flag.
There was some back and forth with “Uncle Sam” Jackson — who, in the role that he was playing, chastised Lamar’s performance as “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” — but his participation added very little.
On the other end of the spectrum was SZA (one the finest voices in all of modern R&B) who joined Lamar for quick spins through two of their collaborations — “Luther” from “GNX” and “All the Stars” from the “Black Panther” film soundtrack.
Of course, everyone was waiting to see how Lamar would handle “Not Like Us,” the worldwide sensation diss track that obliterates fellow rapper Drake in ways many believed would not go over well with a global mainstream family audience. The answer was that he handled it carefully, removing the “pedophiles” charge from the lyrics — although, surely, that didn’t stop millions of fans from finishing the lyrics in the way they were originally written.
In all, it was another massive triumph for Lamar, who is just coming off an utterly impressive Grammy sweep the weekend prior — as “Not Like Us” won two of “Big Four” general field categories (song of the year, record of the year) as well as best rap song, best rap performance and best music video.
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