February has already been a big month for Kendrick Lamar, who is also coming off of a particularly hot 2024.
And on Sunday night, he will take the stage at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans as the headliner of the Super Bowl halftime show.
“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date. And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one,” Lamar, 37, said in an NFL-released statement in September.
SZA will join Lamar onstage, halftime show organizers said last month.
Speaking at an Apple Music news conference Thursday, Lamar said he was not thinking about the Super Bowl in the early days of his career.
“What I know is, the passion I have now is still the passion I had then, and I think that carried on to the Super Bowl,” he said.
The artist last performed at the Super Bowl in 2022 alongside several other rappers and hip-hop musicians in a West Coast-themed show that took place at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium.
Now, Lamar is the first solo hip-hop artist to headline the halftime show, according to Apple Music, which he said “puts the culture on the forefront, where it needs to be, and not just a catchy song or verse. This is a true art form.”
Ahead of Sunday’s show, Lamar said audiences should expect to see “storytelling.”
“I like to always carry on that sense of, you know, make people listen, but also see and think a little,” he said.
Lamar dominated the charts last summer with his single “Not Like Us” — a diss track that was aimed at Canadian rapper Drake amid a monthslong feud and is anticipated to be featured in Sunday’s show.
“Not Like Us” was one of the most popular songs of the summer, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the fastest rap song to reach 700 million streams on Spotify. It also earned Lamar a host of Grammy nominations this year.
Its immense popularity prompted Drake to file a federal lawsuit last month against Universal Music Group, the record label that represents both rappers though under different divisions, alleging the music group used its resources to “elevate a dangerous and inflammatory message that was designed to assassinate Drake’s character.” A spokesperson for UMG has said that the allegations are “untrue.”
Lamar is one of the most decorated rap artists in history, boasting 22 Grammy Awards and 29 BET Awards. In 2018, he won a Pulitzer Prize for music, making him the first musician to earn the title outside of the classical or jazz genres.
Lamar was the winningest artist at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, bringing home five Grammys including both song and record of the year for “Not Like Us.”
In creating “Not Like Us,” and reflecting on how a battle rap song became an award winner, Lamar said he was “just thinking about the culture, really.”
“I love to see that it gets that type of recognition for just straight raps, from awards to the billboards, all that, because this is truly just as big an art form and a genre as any other genre.”
Lamar surprise-released his most recent album, “GNX,” on Nov. 22. The album features a new song, “squabble up,” which was teased in the “Not Like Us” music video. It follows Lamar’s 2022 album “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” and features SZA on two tracks.
Lamar praised SZA’s talent Thursday, noting how he’s seen her grow as an artist from her early days into the star she is now.
“She always had it, man, she always had it, and I’m just honored to be next to a talent,” he said.
Lamar has an appreciation of this moment, both for his career and for the hip-hop community at large. He said he wasn’t sure of his role as an artist when he was starting out, but he has figured out where he stands today.
“I can truly say it’s to express myself and express things that people can’t necessarily say on the daily and for them to actually relate to. And come from the most vulnerable place where people can actually feel it. For me, that’s the role for me as an artist,” Lamar said.
