In one of the most anticipated Superbowl Halftime performances of all time, Kendrick Lamar gave a riveting performance at Superbowl LIX, a performance that encapsulated some of Kendrick’s most recent and popular hits as well as some powerful commentary on the overall cultural divides present within America.
The halftime show received generally positive reviews from fans with most raving about Kendrick’s audacious song choices, choosing to include tracks from his recent rap battle with Drake as well as how the show included a unique storyline featuring Actor Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam. The show was the most viewed halftime show in history, receiving 133.5 million concurrent viewers, breaking Michael Jackson’s previous record of 133.4 million viewers set in 1993 and exceeding the viewership of the actual Superbowl Game as well. In less than one week, the show has already received over 55 million views on youtube, far exceeding the 33.5 views accumulated by Usher’s performance last year.
As a spectator and fan of Lamar myself, I feel the show was fine, but definitely could have been much better. It had numerous important cultural messages layered in between the performance, they were way too subliminal and too clever to really be important, especially within the context of the magnitude of the show. As someone who enjoys but doesn’t idolize his latest album, GNX, I also don’t feel as if Kendrick’s song choices were the very best, especially given his extensive discography of incredible songs. He focused a majority of the show on songs like “Peekaboo” and “Wacced Out Murals”, songs that simply don’t carry the same stadium-esque energy that songs from his albums To Pimp a Butterfly and Good Kid Mad City.
Personally, I’m also not the biggest fan of how the majority audience is reacting to his performance as much of the focus has been placed on Kendrick’s absolute demolition of Drake’s reputation and how petty Lamar was to bring two of Drake’s exes (Serena Williams and Sza) to feature alongside him and how Kendrick directly referenced Drake, devilishly smiling at the camera while discussing some not-so-great activities.
Following the halftime show, Lamar’s already burgeoning popularity has skyrocketed and he’s become the first rapper ever to exceed 90 million monthly listeners
