No one brings the drama like Kendrick Lamar — but was this year's Super Bowl halftime show pure euphoria or a major vibe-kill?
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00:00No one brings a drama like Kendrick Lamar, but was this year's Super Bowl halftime show
00:04pure euphoria or a major vibe kill?
00:08Ahead of Lamar's highly anticipated performance at the Super Bowl LII halftime show, fans
00:13had just one question on their mind — would he really perform his hit diss track, Not
00:17Like Us?
00:18Meet me in New Orleans
00:21Kendrick's nasty feud with Drake is complicated, to say the least, so anyone unfamiliar with
00:26it probably didn't understand the significance of the lowercase a pendant he wore around
00:31his neck during the show.
00:33Fans, however, seem to think that it referenced the iconic A Minor line from Not Like Us,
00:37which suggests that Drake has engaged in inappropriate relationships with underage girls.
00:42Obviously, this is not a topic that would normally come up during even the most disastrous
00:49of Super Bowl halftime shows, and during the show itself, Kendrick teased fans by suggesting
00:54that performing the track could get him into serious trouble.
00:57He said,
00:58"'I want to play their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.'"
01:01This dig immediately shifted the focus from Kendrick to Drake, as evidenced by the social
01:06media reactions.
01:07One fan tweeted,
01:08"'Drake's so mad right now.'"
01:10Another wrote,
01:11"'Drake really catching L after L ever since last year.'"
01:14But it seems that Drake getting disrespected once more wasn't enough to distract viewers
01:18from their many issues with Lamar's show, though.
01:21Kendrick's show had gotten off to a promising start when Samuel L. Jackson made a surprise
01:25appearance as Uncle Sam.
01:27Kendrick then performed a set list that included Squabble Up, Euphoria, Humble, and All the
01:32Stars, for which he was joined by SZA.
01:34Of course, he also wasn't going to let Not Like Us go unsung, and the audience was more
01:38than happy to sing the words A Minor along with him.
01:41Yes, Kendrick clearly tried to bring his A-game for the show.
01:44Sadly, though, there were a few distractions that took away from his performance.
01:48One was an unplanned moment in which a cast member held up a Sudanese and Palestinian
01:52flag, even climbing on the car that Kendrick had stood on at the beginning of the show.
01:57Then there was the quality of the sound.
01:59Some viewers apparently struggled to understand all those delightful Drake disses, as one
02:03comment read,
02:04"'I couldn't hear a thing he said.'"
02:06Others felt that the show was just kind of a snoozefest.
02:09Some even suggested that Drake was the real winner of the 2025 Super Bowl.
02:13One ex-user wrote,
02:14If the performance wasn't so bad, maybe, just maybe, it would have made Drake look like
02:19a fool, but it failed.
02:21And some fans, of course, were simply over Kendrick's feud with Drake.
02:24Certain online critics suggested that the singer's fixation with dragging his nemesis
02:28was beginning to reach unhealthy levels.
02:31One tweet, for example, read,
02:32"'It's basically bullying at this point.'"
02:35The will-he-or-won't-he four-hour ahead of the show also served as a reminder that Kendrick
02:39has Drake to thank for a great deal of his success over the last year.
02:44In a sense, perhaps forgetting the fact that Kendrick has 22 Grammy awards, one ex-user
02:48wrote,
02:49"'He is so obsessed.
02:50How can your career revolve around one song?'
02:53It was also suggested that Drake was low-hanging fruit in a political climate filled with more
02:57deserving targets.
02:59One user on X argued that directly addressing a certain someone in the stadium would have
03:03been a far braver move.
03:04They said,
03:05"'Donald Trump, who is making life harder for Black, brown people, as well LGBT community
03:10in this country, is literally in the audience, but you want to talk about Drake.
03:15Kendrick, you did not eat this, and I say this as a fan, laughing my ass off.'"