Kendrick Lamar performs 2025 Super Bowl halftime show

Drake’s rap foe Kendrick Lamar had an ace up his sleeve, turning his Super Bowl show into a brutal escalation of their ongoing feud.

Rap superstar Kendrick Lamar performed a divisive halftime show at today’s Super Bowl at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

And in a sign rap’s biggest current beef isn’t going away anytime soon, Lamar performed his excoriating Drake diss track Not Like Us live - while Drake’s ex-girlfriend, tennis champ Serena Williams, danced along to the song on stage.

Earlier, there were rumours Lamar had a “big surprise” planned for the performance.

And it turns out, there were a couple: First came in the form of A-list actor Samuel L. Jackson, who made an appearance live in the stadium performing a few lines of dialogue a couple of times during Lamar’s set.

In a ‘meta’ touch, Jackson was there as an ‘Uncle Sam’-type hype man, chiding Lamar when he played newer material and encouraging him to stick to the hits.

Kendrick Lamar performs...

...with a Samuel L Jackson cameo.

MORE: Kendrick vs. Drake: $100m trump card in bitter rap feud

Williams was another all-star cameo, appearing on stage briefly to dance to the brutal Drake diss track ot Like Us. As if it weren’t savage enough to have one of the world’s greatest athletes essentially co-signing a song dissing you, consider this: Williams and Drake dated back in 2011, the rapper even writing the song Too Good about her.

As one person on X described the cameo: “Nasty work.”

Despite (or perhaps because of) their romantic history, it seems Williams is firmly Team Kendrick in this particular rap beef.

Serena Williams has history with Drake - but now she’s firmly Team Kendrick. Picture: Emilee Chinn/Getty

Elsewhere in the set, R&B superstar SZA made an appearance performing the duet Luther with Lamar, then their massive 2018 Black Panther soundtrack hit All the Stars.

Lamar’s friend and frequent collaborator, DJ Mustard, was another famous face eagle-eyed fans spotted on stage during the performance.

Kendrick and SZA peformed back-to-back duets...

And Williams turned back-up dancer for the day. Picture: Getty

The biggest reception of the performance was for the song many had been waiting for: Not Like Us, which drew cheers and an audible singalong inside the stadium.

Those hits aside, Lamar performed a set that was heavy on new material: of the 10 songs he performed, seven were released in the past twelve months (five songs from last year’s GNX album, plus two more 2024 standalone singles).

But many of his most enduring hits were mysteriously absent: No Alright, no King Kunta, in fact nothing from his massive second and third albums Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and To Pimp a Butterfly.

It seems not everyone was a fan of that mix.

“This Kendrick halftime show is the worst I’ve ever seen,” read one popular tweet on X.

Another described it as “a Rapper performing songs nobody knows.”

“We gotta be real, that was the worst halftime show ever,” read another common complaint.

It’s been a busy start to the year for Lamar. He swept the Grammy Awards exactly a week ago today, winning five trophies from five nominations for the song Not Like Us. 

Lamar’s set had a few big hits among newer material. Picture: Cindy Ord/Getty

The blistering diss track picked up Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards, making it the most-awarded single song in Grammys history.

The subject of the diss track, Drake, is midway through his Australian tour, due to perform in Melbourne tonight.

Lamar with some of last week’s Grammys haul. Picture: Getty

Drake is currently touring Australia.

The rap superstar has filed a defamation suit over the song, in which former friend Lamar labels him a pedophile, among other things (that particularly incendiary line was left out the Super Bowl performance).

Today’s NFL game is a rematch of the 2023 Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles up against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs’ most famous player, Travis Kelce, is of course playing - which means all eyes today are on his even-more-famous girlfriend, Taylor Swift.

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime set list

Squabble Up

Humble

DNA

euphoria

Man at the Garden

Peekaboo

Luther (with SZA)

All the Stars (with SZA)

Not Like Us

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