Super Bowl Conversation: The Kendrick Lamar Show Explained

By Brandon Byrd
Howard University
News Service

“GAME OVER” is what was displayed at the end of Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl 59 halftime performance on Sunday as the Philadelphia Eagles led the Kansas City Chiefs 24 to 0. With no context, this statement may have confused viewers, but many who had kept up with the Compton rapper’s beef with Canadian rapper Drake knew exactly what had just transpired.

Suspense had been building for months leading up to the performance. In September 2024, the National Football League (NFL) announced that the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper would be headlining its Super Bowl halftime show. But even right before the show began, viewers still didn’t know what to expect, especially concerning Lamar’s five-time Grammy-winning diss track towards Drake titled “Not Like Us.”

What viewers got was a performance of Lamar’s hit songs from more recent years like “Humble” and “DNA” with a Black dance crew dressed in red, white and blue outfits that formed the American flag. As they moved from stage to stage, actor Samuel L. Jackson, who introduced himself as Uncle Sam, the American caricature of patriotism, antagonizes Kendrick about giving “America what it wants,” referring to his hit songs that lean towards R&B.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Uncle Sam exclaims after Lamar performs a few songs with Grammy-winning singer SZA, like “All the Stars” from the “Black Panther” soundtrack.

“Don’t mess this –” Uncle Sam starts to say as the instrumental of “Not Like Us” begins to play.

He reacts this way because the song clearly references Drake’s alleged history of questionable associations with underage girls in multiple ways. Lamar starts with “say Drake, I hear you like ’em young,” then says “certified lover boy certified pedophile,” referencing Drake’s 2021 album titled “Certified Lover Boy.” Lamar finishes the first verse with the infamous line “tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”

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The release and success of the diss track has led to lawsuits by Drake aimed at Universal Music Group, the label that signed both Drake and Lamar. Drake has claimed that the label is pushing the hit song despite its defamatory language.

With all of that in mind, Howard University students at a watch party had no idea what to expect regarding Lamar’s performance.

After rapping “Euphoria,” a diss track aimed at Drake, Lamar began teasing the song multiple times, playing small parts of the track’s instrumental between other hits.

“I wanna perform they favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” he said as a single second of the beat played.

After SZA came out to perform and Uncle Sam told him not to mess up the performance, the music stopped.

“You really ’bout to do it?” the backup vocalists asked as the instrumental of “Not Like Us” began playing again.

Then he finally did it. The longest song to stay at No. 1 started, and he did name Drake to many viewers’ surprise.

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“He did it!” Shane Noel, a senior psychology major from Brooklyn, New York, exclaimed as he realized what was happening.

“That was amazing,” he said once the performance concluded.

Noel also commented on some nuances of Lamar’s performance like his background dancers forming the American flag around him as he rapped and Jackson’s appearance.

“I felt like white people weren’t gonna understand, but he had clear commentaries,” Noel said. “As soon as I was thinking about it, they panned to Samuel L. Jackson and he said, ‘Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,’ and I was like, ‘Nah this is amazing.’”