Kendrick Lamar Puts an Exclamation Point on Feud

Rapper happily goes after Drake on a massive stage
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 10, 2025 10:42 AM CST
Kendrick Lamar Puts an Exclamation Point on Feud
Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of Super Bowl 59 on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans.   (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The big talk after Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at the Super Bowl is, not surprisingly, his performance of the diss track against Drake, "Not Like Us." The song became a massive hit for Lamar last year as part of a months-long feud with Drake that played out in competing songs.

  • What "will always be remembered from this performance is not the musical choices Lamar made, or the aesthetics of his choreography, or the silhouettes of his outfit," writes music critic Jon Caramanica in the New York Times. "What will remain is his grin when he finally began rapping that song. It was wide, persistent, almost cartoonish in shape. The grin of a man having the time of his life at the expense of an enemy."
  • Watch the halftime show here, with "Not Like Us" starting about the 10-minute mark.

  • "Kendrick had already won his battle with Drake before Sunday night, but then he took the opportunity to dance on Drake's grave on the biggest stage possible," writes Khal Davenport at the Ringer. "That's just how some folks beef." He notes that Lamar also brought out two of Drake's exes, SZA and Serena Williams, as part of the show. About the only concession he made was not using the word "pedophile" in the big song, which is the subject of a Drake lawsuit.
  • Lamar "is canny," writes Nadira Goffe at Slate. He delivered a larger message against racism during his show, but he also knew that America wanted to hear that song. "Lamar gave us the medicine with the cake, expecting us to eat it all—and America housed it. Because what he knows is that American culture is Black culture, and Black culture is hip-hop culture, and beef is not being afraid of paper tigers—it's laying it all out on the playing field."
  • Need a primer on the feud? The BBC and USA Today oblige.
(More Kendrick Lamar stories.)

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