Kendrick Lamar didn’t even let the NFL’s opening Sunday games get underway before he announced his plans to perform at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February.
Lamar made the announcement with Roc Nation, Apple Music and the NFL. Super Bowl LIX, which airs on Fox on Feb. 9, will take place at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
“Will you be pulling up?” Lamar asked. “I hope so. … Wear your best dress, too, even if you’re watching from home. Let’s go.”
In a news release, Roc Nation founder Jay-Z called Lamar “truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer.”
“His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision,” he said. “He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come.”
Skip to end of carousel
End of carouselStyle is where The Washington Post explains what’s happening on the front lines of culture — including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion — with wit, personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories, click here. To subscribe to the Style Memo newsletter, click here.
This will be the sixth Super Bowl halftime show produced by Jay-Z’s entertainment company and the NFL after the two sides agreed to work together in August 2019 for a long-term partnership that allows Roc Nation to select artists for league events. Roc Nation has enlisted Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, the Weeknd, Rihanna, Usher and others to perform at the shows.
This will be Lamar’s second performance at a Super Bowl halftime show. He appeared during the 2022 set headlined by Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, with additional special guests. (That performance won three Emmy Awards, including outstanding variety special (live), which was a first for the halftime show.)
Lamar is one of the most highly acclaimed rappers in history, with 17 Grammys and four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album, “Damn.”
Lamar has had a big 2024, despite not dropping an album (though he’s rumored to have one on the way). He was caught up in a massive war of diss tracks with Drake earlier this year, which led to his chart-topping “Not Like Us” becoming a song-of-the-summer contender. Lamar was also featured on the Metro Boomin and Future song “Like That,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in April.
The focus on Lamar continued on Juneteenth, when the rapper performed at his Pop Out: Ken & Friends show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., in front of thousands of fans (and even some NBA players). The concert was live-streamed on Prime Video and Twitch, and it was largely seen as the nail in the coffin for Lamar’s feud with Drake.
(The beef between Lamar and Drake gained steam in 2023, when Drake and fellow rapper J. Cole made claims in the song “First Person Shooter” that they were as “big as the Super Bowl,” a song slightly aimed at Lamar.)
It sounds as if Lamar will continue to celebrate the music genre at the Super Bowl in February, too. “Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” he said in a statement. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”
