One of the biggest rappers of his generation, Kendrick Lamar is a logical choice for the NFL’s biggest stage. But the politically conscious rapper also stands in stark contrast to the league’s image.
Hot off one of the most high-profile beefs in recent hip-hop history, Kendrick Lamar will take center stage at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
With his livewire intensity and sense of showmanship, Lamar’s performance could be one for the history books. But combining one of the most celebrated rappers of his generation, known for his politically charged lyrics, with an organization like the National Football League also comes with some tension.
Will Lamar be a stress test for one of the biggest stages in American pop culture or will it be just another Super Bowl halftime show?
Unfortunately, for those hoping to see Lamar go full Kendrick at the Super Bowl, the answer is probably the latter, says Andrew Mall, an associate professor of music at Northeastern University.
“I don’t think he has a lot of flexibility to push the boundaries. I don’t see that it would really be in his best interest either,” Mall says. “Presumably he and his team agreed to do this knowing it would be a larger stage than he’s ever had access to. … They made that decision knowing they’d have to compromise some of his vision in order to reach a much larger audience.”
Putting Lamar together with the NFL was always going to be an odd couple pairing. Lamar’s “Alright” became an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, The NFL has faced backlash over its handling of players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and social injustice.
It’s almost impossible to separate politics from so many of Lamar’s biggest songs. While both parties likely had to negotiate about which songs to perform, Mall says “it will still be interesting to see how much, if any, of [his politics] are going to be at the halftime show.”
Beyoncé’s halftime performance during one of the NFL’s Christmas Day games is probably the best analog for what Lamar will do during the Super Bowl, Mall notes.
“‘Cowboy Carter’ as a record has a lot of direct references to racial disparity –– her last half-dozen albums do,” Mall says. “She’s, in many ways, a political artist, but that show was not a political show. It was a really fun show to watch and it engaged with her genre-bending. … That was maybe a stress test that the NFL is perhaps looking at to say, ‘Well, if Beyonce can do it, maybe Kendrick can do it also.’”
Despite the tension involved with putting an artist like Lamar on an NFL stage, he is, in many ways, the most logical choice for the gig, Mall adds. Unlike many recent halftime show performers, Lamar is still in his prime in terms of commercial and critical success. His appeal spans generations and genres. Plus, excluding the political ideas he puts into the staging for his live shows, the energy, choreography and multimedia elements of his performances are a perfect fit for the bombast of the Super Bowl halftime show.
He’s also coming off of a hot streak. He dropped a surprise new album at the end of 2024 and turned a diss track, “Not Like Us,” into a bonafide hit (and Grammy nominee).
It’s all but inevitable that Lamar will perform “Not Like Us.” If he does, that might prove the biggest hit of his Super Bowl performance –– and the biggest controversy. Censoring songs for profanity is common for Super Bowl halftime shows. Doing so for a song whose biggest bar involves Lamar calling Drake a “certified pedophile” presents some interesting challenges.
But Mall says conversations like this have already occurred countless times behind the scenes between the artist, producers and league before the performer takes the stage. So, with limited exceptions, it’s unlikely that anything Lamar does, or says, on Super Bowl Sunday is him pushing the NFL’s buttons.
“He won’t do that in part because the scale and the choreography and the production of the Super Bowl halftime show has to be set in stone,” Mall says. “So, he can’t just tease and be like, ‘I know you said I can’t do this, but here I am dancing around the edges.’ … My guess is there’s no chance for him to surprise at least anyone who is in a decision-making position with what’s going to be on stage or on the field.”