On the first NFL Sunday of the 2023-24 season, the league bucked tradition by announcing the choice for the Super Bowl halftime show well ahead of schedule. Kendrick Lamar will take the stage at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans this February, taking to Instagram to break the news himself midday. Here’s our full breakdown.
The choice of Kendrick Lamar makes Super Bowl halftime show history; he’ll be the first rapper to solo headline the show, following up the hip-hop heavy performance from a few years back when Dr. Dre, Eminem & Snoop Dogg took the honors. Of course, Lamar himself was a surprise appearance along with 50 Cent, giving fans a mini-preview of what to expect at the tail end of the postseason.
Kendrick Lamar Beats Out A Crowded Field Of Potential Super Bowl Performers
As far as potential other contenders, Taylor Swift certainly seems like a snub, especially given her increasing ties to the NFL post-Travis Kelce. However, the closing legs of the Eras tour and its proximity to the February kickoff make it a near impossibility, even for one of the hardest touring acts in the industry. Social media would have convinced you that a Drake and Lil Wayne co-headline was a guarantee, particularly with Wayne’s NOLA heritage.
With that in mind, the choice of Kendrick Lamar for the Super Bowl chalks another in the W column for the Compton MC. Either Young Money artist has the catalog to do it alone, and their sheer size and cultural importance makes them heavy contenders for future years. Whatever the behind the scenes conversations were like, in the end, the Louisiana locale wasn’t enough to secure the bid.
Which brings us to the tracklist. Of course, this spring’s feud between Drake & Kendrick Lamar was the biggest music storylines in years, and undoubtedly pushed Lamar into a different superstar stratosphere. Yet the NFL is famously image-conscious; will their reputation for sanitized performances push “Not Like Us” off the stage? Either outcome seems equally unlikely at this stage. “Alright” and “MAAD City,” both performed during Lamar’s last appearance, seem like shoo ins to make the grade, as do his previous chart-topping type fare like “Swimming Pools,” “LOVE.” and “HUMBLE.”
There’s plenty of time to speculate about what the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime show will bring us this winter, but for now, check out all of the rapper’s backlog wherever you stream your music.
Elsewhere in our coverage, Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk is a career-best effort for the pop duo.
