Photo Credit: SZA and Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show / ABC10
Following much speculation and multiple teasers over whether or not he would play his hit Drake diss track “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar delivers.
In the first solo headlining hip-hop performance in Super Bowl history, Kendrick Lamar delivered a powerful halftime show, featuring SZA and actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam.
The Pulitzer Prize winning rapper started under a spotlight atop the hood of a 1987 Buick GNX — fittingly, as he opened with “GNX,” before moving into “Squabble Up.” Dancers dressed in red, white, and blue stood in a US flag formation as they joined Lamar, before Jackson as Uncle Sam “interrupted” the performance to call them “too loud, too reckless… too ghetto.”
Jackson-as-Uncle-Sam taunted K.Dot to “play the game,” which the rapper answered by launching into a medley of “Humble,” “DNA,” “Euphoria,” and “man at the garden.” “Score keeper, deduct one life,” sneered Jackson, before Lamar launched into “peekaboo,” and teased a performance of “Not Like Us.”
Notably, speculation has abounded in the weeks leading up to the big game over whether Kendrick would play the Drake-dominating hit. A teaser for the performance hinted that it would be played, and Ken himself said he was undeterred by so-called threats from the Drake camp that their lawsuit against Universal Music Group was bound to get worse if he did.
“Not Like Us” achieved a billion streams on Spotify in record time, and the song has been a massive hit for Kendrick Lamar. A rallying cry for his native Los Angeles, the track not only won K.Dot the highly publicized feud with Drake, but also secured him both song and record of the year at the Grammy Awards last weekend.
Fast forward to the Super Bowl halftime show. “I wanna play their favorite song but you know they love to sue,” Lamar told the female dancers behind him partway through the just-under-13-minute performance, referencing the ongoing litigation between Drake and UMG.
But fans expecting “Not Like Us” right at that moment were surprised when SZA joined Ken on stage for a medley of “Luther” and “All the Stars.” This pleased Jackson’s Uncle Sam. “That’s what America wants: nice and calm,” he said smugly.
And that’s when Kendrick pounced, launching into “Not Like Us” — with all its Drake call-outs and scathing culture vulture commentary intact, but notably with the word “pedophile” omitted — as his dancers surrounded him.
Kendrick Lamar is no stranger to the Super Bowl halftime show, as he previously performed alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and 50 Cent at the 2022 championship game. But this time, he was not only the headliner, but made history as the first hip-hop star to headline the show solo.
“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” said Lamar back in September, when he was first announced as the 2025 halftime performer. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”
But whether that performance will spell more headaches for UMG in the defamation lawsuit that it’s battling with Drake remains to be seen.