Is Kendrick Lamar About to Reinvent the Super Bowl Halftime Show?
CultureIf there's one thing K Dot knows how to do, it's make the absolute most of a high-profile TV moment, whether it's a performance slot on the Grammys or the biggest event in sports.By Frazier TharpeJanuary 28, 2025Chris Panicker; Getty ImagesSave this storySaveSave this storySaveThis is an edition of the weekly newsletter Tap In, GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe’s final word on the most heated online discourse about music, movies, and TV. Sign up here to get it free.The long slog of January is almost over, Drake is fleeing the continent, and the Super Bowl matchup has been set—which means Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show is almost upon us. And thank God, because man, is it going to be incredible. That’s not from a place of knowing anything about what he has in store—it’s based purely on past presentations, which have been up there with the absolute best performances hip-hop has ever seen. I think, given the sensation surrounding this particular event—rap beefs, lawsuits, perceived snubs of hometown-hero OGs—it’s worth remembering and reiterating that we should all be excited for this, not because we may hear a generational diss track played during America’s biggest live event, but because Kendrick is a generational live performer. I laughed at tweets following Beyoncé’s incredible Christmas-halftime-but-Super-Bowl-worthy show that said things along the lines of, “Kendrick has his work cut out for him,” because if there’s one rapper who has the flair to follow Cowboy Carter, it’s K Dot.Anticipation for the show he’s about to put on has led me back to his last two Grammy performances—the most recent from 2018 is probably the only time I’ve actually ripped and downloaded a performance to my computer. Like, my reaction after watching it was “this is too good for me to not be able to watch whenever I want because of rights issues or whatever.” And it’s a good thing I did, because I do watch it every now and then and—at press time—it’s not available to watch legaly in full high-definition glory.But if you can find decent rips—cough and ahem—those sets are a good primer to get hype about what’s about to go down in two weeks. We’re in for something audacious—something as button-pushing and culturally potent as Roger Goodell will allow and the cover of Roc Nation can provide. Remember 2016, when he scared an auditorium full of music industry peers marching out in prison blues and a chain gang?Get Kendrick on a nationally televised platform and the result isn’t just a cool medley with occasional pyrotechnics; you’re typically in for an uber-conceptual three-act play. That aforementioned 2016 Grammy performance used To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” for a meditation on the long lineage of cultural and artistic expression back through our roots, or something to that effect. But then Kenny blew himself out of the water two years later during his Damn. era, opening the 2018 Grammys telecast with what still might be his best clip to date, not to mention one of the best Grammy performances of the last 10 years.Backed by what looks like about two dozen synchronized dancers, plus cameos from U2 and in-person narration cutaways to Dave Chappelle, Kendrick somehow fits “XXX.,” “Feel.,” “DNA.,” “New Freezer” and “King’s Dead” into a coherent statement on being Black in America, all while finding time to wink at the audience while doing so—and most importantly just put on a set that’s simply cool as fuck. Rapping lyrics from a Rich Tha Kid collab in a sort of duet with a woman who’s banging on a big taiko drum? Soldiers falling out from invisible assassinations as he drops one loaded lyric after another about how he won’t conform to the “title y’all want me under”? That was real Fuck, just give him the awards already energy; I couldn’t even be mad when they did just that and he swept Jigga in all the 4:44 vs Damn. face-offs.Now, seven years later, there’s no doubt in my mind we’re about to see the IMAX version. That was Inception, now it’s time for Oppenheimer. Kendrick’s runtime is doubled, his money is longer, and, as anyone who attended the Mr. Morale tour knows, his showmanship powers have only grown. And yes, to circle back to the elephant in the room: His blood pressure is still skyrocketing off a wartime win in an exemplary year that reminded anyone who forgot of why he’s not to be fucked with. Now he’s got an audience of 100 million viewers to put one big exclamation point on the end of that statement.Maybe I’m gassing a little, but that’s just where I’m at with it. Get your jokes off about him “needing” SZA to pad the duration of the show out if you want. Anyone who’s been paying close attention for the last 10 years—and doesn’t have an owl in their bio—knows that whatever he and Dave Free have up their sleeves is going to be way more audacious than any guest. Can’t wait.
This is an edition of the weekly newsletter Tap In, GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe’s final word on the most heated online discourse about music, movies, and TV. Sign up here to get it free.
The long slog of January is almost over, Drake is fleeing the continent, and the Super Bowl matchup has been set—which means Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show is almost upon us. And thank God, because man, is it going to be incredible. That’s not from a place of knowing anything about what he has in store—it’s based purely on past presentations, which have been up there with the absolute best performances hip-hop has ever seen. I think, given the sensation surrounding this particular event—rap beefs, lawsuits, perceived snubs of hometown-hero OGs—it’s worth remembering and reiterating that we should all be excited for this, not because we may hear a generational diss track played during America’s biggest live event, but because Kendrick is a generational live performer. I laughed at tweets following Beyoncé’s incredible Christmas-halftime-but-Super-Bowl-worthy show that said things along the lines of, “Kendrick has his work cut out for him,” because if there’s one rapper who has the flair to follow Cowboy Carter, it’s K Dot.
Anticipation for the show he’s about to put on has led me back to his last two Grammy performances—the most recent from 2018 is probably the only time I’ve actually ripped and downloaded a performance to my computer. Like, my reaction after watching it was “this is too good for me to not be able to watch whenever I want because of rights issues or whatever.” And it’s a good thing I did, because I do watch it every now and then and—at press time—it’s not available to watch legaly in full high-definition glory.
But if you can find decent rips—cough and ahem—those sets are a good primer to get hype about what’s about to go down in two weeks. We’re in for something audacious—something as button-pushing and culturally potent as Roger Goodell will allow and the cover of Roc Nation can provide. Remember 2016, when he scared an auditorium full of music industry peers marching out in prison blues and a chain gang?
Get Kendrick on a nationally televised platform and the result isn’t just a cool medley with occasional pyrotechnics; you’re typically in for an uber-conceptual three-act play. That aforementioned 2016 Grammy performance used To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Blacker the Berry” and “Alright” for a meditation on the long lineage of cultural and artistic expression back through our roots, or something to that effect. But then Kenny blew himself out of the water two years later during his Damn. era, opening the 2018 Grammys telecast with what still might be his best clip to date, not to mention one of the best Grammy performances of the last 10 years.
Backed by what looks like about two dozen synchronized dancers, plus cameos from U2 and in-person narration cutaways to Dave Chappelle, Kendrick somehow fits “XXX.,” “Feel.,” “DNA.,” “New Freezer” and “King’s Dead” into a coherent statement on being Black in America, all while finding time to wink at the audience while doing so—and most importantly just put on a set that’s simply cool as fuck. Rapping lyrics from a Rich Tha Kid collab in a sort of duet with a woman who’s banging on a big taiko drum? Soldiers falling out from invisible assassinations as he drops one loaded lyric after another about how he won’t conform to the “title y’all want me under”? That was real Fuck, just give him the awards already energy; I couldn’t even be mad when they did just that and he swept Jigga in all the 4:44 vs Damn. face-offs.
Now, seven years later, there’s no doubt in my mind we’re about to see the IMAX version. That was Inception, now it’s time for Oppenheimer. Kendrick’s runtime is doubled, his money is longer, and, as anyone who attended the Mr. Morale tour knows, his showmanship powers have only grown. And yes, to circle back to the elephant in the room: His blood pressure is still skyrocketing off a wartime win in an exemplary year that reminded anyone who forgot of why he’s not to be fucked with. Now he’s got an audience of 100 million viewers to put one big exclamation point on the end of that statement.
Maybe I’m gassing a little, but that’s just where I’m at with it. Get your jokes off about him “needing” SZA to pad the duration of the show out if you want. Anyone who’s been paying close attention for the last 10 years—and doesn’t have an owl in their bio—knows that whatever he and Dave Free have up their sleeves is going to be way more audacious than any guest. Can’t wait.
