Flared Jeans and a Call for Awareness—Super Bowl LIX Halftime

The Super Bowl has been a staple in American culture for 59 years now, yet there’s been few Super Bowl halftime shows as political as 2025’s.    

At the Super Bowl LIX halftime show, Kendrick Lamar—20 time Grammy award winner and world-famous rapper—and guest star SZA simultaneously delivered a captivating performance and a political statement. Ultimately, the revolutionary sentiment Lamar was going for lacked sentiment, but he successfully brought attention to issues in the U.S., including racial discrimination and Trump’s new regime.

Though Lamar had long been a household name, he was thrust further into the spotlight in 2024 following his release of “Not Like Us,” a diss track directed at Aubrey “Drake” Graham. Lamar and Drake had already been going back and forth with diss tracks, but “Not Like Us” was special. There’s an inherent, belligerent provocativeness from throwing pedophilia accusations at one of the most commercially successful artists of all time. After this song was released, Lamar released an album sonically similar to “Not Like Us,” GNX (2024), which was incredibly well-received by audiences. Then, in early February, “Not Like Us” won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammys, yet another career high after a year full of them. 

The performance, albeit short, was imbued with an abundance of social commentary. Before Lamar took the stage, renowned actor Samuel L. Jackson—dressed as Uncle Sam, representing America—introduced the Super Bowl as “the great American game.” Jackson acted as the narrator for the rest of the performance. Lamar was then introduced sitting on a Buick GNX, referencing his last album. He started the show off with a snippet of his upbeat and fast-paced unreleased track last seen in the teaser for this album. After this, Lamar rapped, “The revolution ‘bout to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.” Lamar was referring to Trump, who was in the audience. However, Lamar gave viewers no relief from the assertion’s political whiplash, immediately transitioning into his GNX smash-hit, “squabble up.”

After this song, Uncle Sam referred to the performance as “too loud, too reckless, [and] too ghetto.” He told Lamar that he isn’t playing “the game” correctly and needs to “tighten up.” This is a metaphor for how marginalized communities, especially musical artists in the Black community, are treated. Over the years, hip-hop has been commodified by the music industry to benefit the less political, less conscious rappers. Then, Lamar began his hit song “HUMBLE.,” where a group of all-black background dancers clad in red, white, or blue outfits came together to form an American flag. The background dancers invoked the fact that the U.S. was built upon slaves, and that Black communities are still marginalized. The flag was split down the middle, representing how the U.S. has been torn apart by differing political views and Trump’s backward ideologies. The metaphor was relatively clear, but could have been more effective if used during a song more directly related to the message behind the split flag—which Lamar has no shortage of in his discography—instead of one of his most commercial hits.. 

Lamar then shifted from one of his more popular songs, “DNA.,” to Drake diss “euphoria.” Then, he played some GNX hits, like “man at the garden” and “peekaboo.” During “peekaboo,” Kendrick and his background dancers, all dressed in white, were inside a big X on the field. Lamar then hinted at playing “Not Like Us,” telling some of his female background dancers that he “[wanted] to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.” This was referring to the legal battle that Universal Music Group faced after the release of “Not Like Us,” as Drake sued them for defamation and harassment. A small snippet of the instrumental from this song played, only for Lamar to move into the soft, lofi-inspired “luther.” That’s when SZA entered with her smooth vocals and captivating stage presence. SZA sang the song inside of a massive triangle on the field, while the background dancers followed Lamar single-file in a curved line. They sang a rap duet together before moving into fan-favorite “All The Stars,” which the duo had never performed live before. They sang this song together in a giant circle while the background dancers rhythmically marched toward and around it. 

Following “All the Stars,” Uncle Sam referred to the performance as “nice and calm.” He was about to tell Lamar, “don’t mess this up” before getting cut off by an instrumental from “Not Like Us.” At last, after mercilessly teasing it throughout the whole show, Lamar finally performed his song of the year: “Not Like Us.” He leveled his now famous pedophilia accusations at Drake with a bright smile on his face, visibly enjoying dissing the rapper in front of an audience of millions. Even though Lamar’s charged lyrics were censored, the rendition did not sound corny. The audience filled in some of the gaps in his lyrics, and he replaced TV-unfriendly bars with lyrics that matched the originals in rhythm and meaning. Serena Williams—one of the greatest tennis players of all time, rumored to be Drake’s ex—appeared as one of the dancers. She was crip walking, just as she did at the 2012 London Olympics. It was extremely controversial then, but the fact that she did it again was meant to convey a sense of Black pride; like Lamar’s performance of “Not Like Us,” Williams was unapologetically celebrating Black culture and openly defying Uncle Sam’s demands. 

For Lamar’s final song, he rapped “tv off.” As Lamar ferociously yelled the internet-famous bar “MUSTARD!,” Mustard—who produced “Not Like Us” and parts of “tv off”—came onto the field. At this point, the background dancers were organized neatly into rows on the field, but others were dancing more chaotically inside the giant shapes on the field. The bright, flashing lights and triumphant sound of the song made this an effective and entertaining conclusion to the show.

Lamar’s performance was one of the most politically meaningful halftime shows that the Super Bowl has ever seen, and will ever see. However, though his themes were easy to understand, they became slightly muddled and vague due to how Lamar attempted to convey too many ideas: he’s publicly attacking Drake (as he’s been doing for the past year), but he’s also trying to articulate this message about Trump and racial discrimination. Lamar tried to mention a “revolution,” but what’s revolutionary about him reiterating surface-level political assertions that most people are already aware of?  His critiques of racial discrimination and Trump, while applaudable, lacked substance. Whether or not the U.S. will really hear Lamar’s messages is questionable, but the performance may have helped raise awareness about the issues currently lingering in the U.S. His messages were strong, yet struggled to resonate with audiences, even if the show itself was fun to watch. Nonetheless, if he hadn’t already, Lamar has most certainly made a name for himself after this public protest and called for awareness of the U.S.’s political climate.