Kendrick Lamar, with a guest appearance by SZA, headlined the Super Bowl, and there were some surprises in store.
Legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed in red, white and blue as Uncle Sam, was the one to introduce Lamar as he took the field.
Jackson continued to narrate through the rest of the performance.
“I’ve always been very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history of music,” Lamar said at a press conference last week, as ESPN reported. “Whether it’s a world tour or whether it’s 500 people at Key Club, I like to always … make people listen, but also see and think a little.”
Serena Williams came out for a much-buzzed-about cameo as she C-walked during “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s uber-successful Drake diss which won two Grammys last Sunday.
Williams, also from Compton like Lamar, was briefly linked romantically to Drake many years ago, and he has said that his song “Too Good,” from 2016’s Views album, was about Williams. Years later, he caught major flack for name-dropping Serena and dissing her husband Alexis Ohanian on the song “Middle of the Ocean” from Her Loss.
Williams previously praised “Not Like Us.” Back in July, she said at the 2024 Essence Festival, “I love that song. It’s like the hit of the summer. When they play that jam, I’m jamming. That jam is jamming.”
The internet reacted with excitement to see Williams during the performance.
Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show setlist:
- “GNX (Teaser)”
- “Squabble Up”
- “Humble.”
- “DNA”
- “Euphoria”
- “Man at the Garden”
- “Peekaboo”
- “Luther” (with SZA)
- “All the Stars” (with SZA)
- “Not Like Us”
- “TV Off”
