Kendrick Lamar gave a showstopping halftime performance at the 2025 Super Bowl that celebrated hits old and new while featuring a slew of famous faces.
Dressed in a leather sports jacket, jeans and a backward cap, the 37-year-old Grammy-winning rapper took the field on Sunday to deliver a high-energy concert.
Before he took the stage, though, he was introduced by Oscar-nominated actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam. The Pulp Fiction actor stayed throughout the show to introduce each segment.
Lamar was later joined by his longtime collaborator and R&B singer SZA to deliver renditions of their songs “luther” and “All the Stars.”
Toward the end of the rapper’s performance, the cameras panned to his backup dancers, which featured an unexpected cameo from tennis superstar Serena Williams. Williams and Lamar’s rap nemesis Drake were rumored to have been romantically linked after they were seen kissing in 2015.
His setlist included a number of the newest hits from his latest GNX album, as well as a couple of his past bops, such as his 2017 track “HUMBLE.”
Still, he couldn’t close out his set without finally giving fans what they wanted: a taste of his chart-topping Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.”
After teasing it a few times, saying: “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue,” Lamar finally gave in and performed it as his penultimate song; but not without a few changes.
In the original recording, Lamar references Drake’s 2021 album, rapping: “Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophile.” But during the halftime performance, Lamar omitted the word pedophile as well as the n-word throughout.
Lamar was also joined onstage by his "Not Like Us" producer, DJ Mustard. Fans of the performance included Ben Stiller who shared on X: “Best Halftime show ever..”
You can find Lamar’s set list in full below:
- “wacced out morals”
- “Bodies (GNX snippet)”
- “Squabble Up”
- “HUMBLE.”
- “DNA.”
- “Euphoria”
- “Man at the Garden”
- “peekaboo (feat. azchike)”
- “luther (with SZA)”
- “All the Stars (with SZA)”
- “Not Like Us”
- “tv off (feat. lefty gunplay)”
