Kendrick Lamar Tapped To Perform At Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, Jabs At Drake In Promo

Armon Sadler
·3 min read
19

Kendrick Lamar’s seismic year continued this weekend, as he was announced to perform during the halftime show of Super Bowl LIX. The 37-year-old rapper seemingly used the moment to dismiss any rumors of re-igniting his beef with Drake, who has alluded to a “game two” on his burner Instagram account.

Early Sunday morning (Sept. 8), the Compton rapper made a rare appearance on X (formerly Twitter) to share a YouTube video. In it, he was seen standing on a football field in front of a massive United States flag. The Pulitzer Prize winner placed footballs into a passing machine one by one and encouraged someone off-camera who was catching them.

“What the deal, everybody? My name’s Kendrick Lamar and I’ll be performing at Super Bowl LIX,” he said. “Will you be pulling up? I hope so. You know it’s only one opportunity to win a championship. No round twos […] I wouldn’t want you to miss it. Meet me in New Orleans. February 9th, 2025. Bring your best dress too, even if you’re watching from home.” Watch the promotional trailer, directed by his friend and PgLang affiliate, Dave Free, below.

Kendrick Lamar will make history as the first rapper to headline the Super Bowl halftime show on his own, in addition to being the first rapper to perform twice at the grand spectacle and the first artist to perform within the same decade. His first appearance was in 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and guest performer 50 Cent.

This momentous announcement was met with a lot of excitement, but excitement wasn’t the consensus. For some, they were frustrated that Lil Wayne didn’t get the nod, given the fact that the big game would take place in his hometown. For others, they were frustrated that Lamar seemingly used such a major look to take another shot at his foe, Drake.

At the end of August, amid his consistent dumps on his burner Instagram account plotttttwistttttt, the Toronto superstar shared a video of Rasheed Wallace. In it, he was speaking to the media after his Detroit Pistons lost game one of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers. “Y’all put it in the front page, back page, middle of the page, wherever,” Wallace said. “Headliners, column one or two, we will win game two. We will win game two.”

Rasheed Wallace and the Pistons kept that promise with a 72-67 victory in game two and went on to win the series in six games before defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals. This video, which was later deleted before expiring in 24 hours like all Instagram Stories do, was interpreted as Drake suggesting that he wasn’t done with the feud; additionally, he seemed confident that he could come out on the winning end if he and Lamar were to engage in lyrical fisticuffs again.

His latest records, most of which appeared on his website 100gigs.com before being added to streaming, have also addressed the battle they waged from March to May. “Ni**as got lit off the features I skated on/ I gotta know, I gotta know, how you get lit off the ni**a you hatin’ on?/ Numbers untouchable, they got the data wrong/ This is the moment I know they been prayin’ on,” he rapped on “No Face.”

With the Grammys looming and K. Dot more than likely performing “Not Like Us” on the biggest stage in the world, Drizzy will have a lot to overcome. If their first game was a “20 v 1” as he rapped on “Push Ups” and “Family Matters,” the potential second game or “round two” could end up being 20 million versus one.

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