Kendrick Lamar is on a run he’ll never forget, and now it’s going to include a headline slot at the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans in 2025.
It’s not often a diss track becomes a major hit, but that’s what happened this May when the LA rapper dropped his Drake diss “Not Like Us,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 while prominently calling the Canadian rapper a pedophile.
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Kendrick and Drake’s long-rumored beef had picked up last October after J. Cole insinuated that he, Drake, and Lamar were the “big three” in the industry on Drake’s “First Person Shooter.” Elsewhere on that song, Drake rapped, “Big as the what? Big as the Super Bowl,” despite never having performed there. Now, Kendrick will do it first.
The announcement that Kendrick will headline the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show is one of the league’s bolder moves, but one that’s not as surprising when looking at the details. In 2019, the league partnered with Jay-Z and his company Roc Nation to let them handle the entertainment around the league, which includes production of the halftime shows.
“The NFL has a great big platform, and it has to be all-inclusive,” Jay-Z told the New York Times at the time. Since 2020, the Roc Nation-curated headliners have included Shakira and Jennifer Lopez (2020), The Weeknd (2021), Dr. Dre with special guests Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar (2022), Rihanna (2023), and Usher (2024).
In yesterday’s announcement, Jay-Z called Kendrick “a truly once-in-a-generational artist and performer.” Kendrick said his job is to “remind the world why” rap remains one of the industry’s most impactful genres.
Super Bowl LIX is in New Orleans, and many had wondered if the headline honor might go Lil Wayne—arguably the city’s most famous rapper, who also happened to have discovered and mentored Drake early in his career, signing him to his record label Young Money Entertainment in 2009.
Master P, a fellow New Orleans icon, was tapped to be the Entertainment Ambassador for the upcoming Super Bowl. He congratulated Kendrick on Instagram before adding that “one of the greatest Hip Hop artists alive” should be included in the event, referring to Lil Wayne. Some fans were more pointed in their criticism.
Still, it’s not out of the question that Lil Wayne could make an appearance: Kendrick and Lil Wyane have worked together before, collaborating on 2018’s “Mona Lisa.” In fact, Lil Wayne appears on the current list of Roc Nation-curated NFL “songs of the season,” on a feature for the Roc-signed athlete and artist Flau’jae Johnson.
Could another major superstar also find her way onto the stage? We know there’s a major connection between Taylor Swift and the NFL, thanks to her Super Bowl-winning boyfriend Travis Kelce. She and Kendrick Lamar teamed up for “Bad Blood” from her 1989 album, and her appearance would send shockwaves, maybe even literally.
No matter what, conspiracy theories will surely abound. Super Bowl LIX will take place on February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
