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Review: Kendrick Lamar brings America and ‘Not Like Us’ into history-making Super Bowl halftime show

0 seconds of 1 minute, 32 seconds
 
BY  MARIA SHERMAN
Updated 8:09 AM GMT+6, February 10, 2025

▶ Follow live updates on the 2025 Super Bowl

“Salutations!,” the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.

As if there were any doubts of the Pulitzer Prize winning rapper’s ability to put on a show.

He started with “GNX” moving into “Squabble Up.” For just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.

Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colors, they were labeled “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” by Jackson’s Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to “play the game.” Then, he launched into “Humble.,” “DNA.,” “Euphoria” and “man at the garden.”

“Score keeper, deduct one life,” Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into “peakboo,” and then teased a performance of “Not Like Us.”

AP SETS THE STANDARD FOR POLITICAL REPORTING.
ENTERTAINMENT

Review: Kendrick Lamar brings America and ‘Not Like Us’ into history-making Super Bowl halftime show

0 seconds of 1 minute, 32 seconds
 
BY  MARIA SHERMAN
Updated 8:09 AM GMT+6, February 10, 2025

▶ Follow live updates on the 2025 Super Bowl

“Salutations!,” the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.

As if there were any doubts of the Pulitzer Prize winning rapper’s ability to put on a show.

He started with “GNX” moving into “Squabble Up.” For just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.

Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colors, they were labeled “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” by Jackson’s Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to “play the game.” Then, he launched into “Humble.,” “DNA.,” “Euphoria” and “man at the garden.”

“Score keeper, deduct one life,” Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into “peakboo,” and then teased a performance of “Not Like Us.”

“I wanna play their favorite song but you know they love to sue,” Lamar told the women dancers behind him, referencing Drake.

It is hard to underscore the ubiquity of “Not Like Us” — with its billion streams on Spotify, the massive hit is a regional anthem for Los Angeles, a rallying cry for community and against culture vultures, a diss track that won Lamar the highly-publicized feud with Drake and the track that won song and record of the year at the Grammys last weekend.