“I run the game like Walter Payton back 1984,” Kendrick Lamar famously rapped in “Blood Sport,” a track from his early-career mixtape, 2005’s Training Day. That nearly 20-year-old song, which is loaded with references to past NFL greats such as Deion Sanders and Peyton Manning, now feels like the audio version of a successful vision board, as Lamar has just been named the headliner for the upcoming Super Bowl’s halftime show, aka the “2025 Apple Music Super Bowl LIX.”
This won’t be the first Big Game outing for the Pulitzer Prize winner (for his 2017 album, Damn). In 2022, Kendrick Lamar joined Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Anderson.Paak, Mary J. Blige, and 50 Cent for Super Bowl LVI’s tribute to hip-hop and Los Angeles, singing his songs “Humble” and “Alright.”
But though he took that 2022 star turn, Lamar’s relationship with the NFL has been a fraught one. In 2018, he told Vanity Fair that he had once been a fan of the game but that its response to former player Colin Kaepernick’s protests against systemic racism and police brutality soured him on the league. “I’m less enthused,” Lamar said in 2018. “It’s enraging; I think what Kap is doing is honest, and it’s not just his truth, it’s our truth.”
In the years since, Lamar has found himself at the center of a public dispute with Drake, with both trading barbs over the others’ alleged treatment of women. His pointed diss track targeting the Canadian singer, 2024’s “Not Like Us,” has been one of the year’s biggest hits.
In a statement released Sunday as part of the Super Bowl announcement, Lamar didn’t address his past issues with the league—nor did he mention the NFL’s checkered past when it comes to the harassment and abuse of women. Instead, he focused on his art, saying “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.”
The 2025 halftime show will be produced by Jay-Z and his company, Roc Nation, for the sixth year in a row. And like Lamar, Jay-Z steered clear of the game when announcing the “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” singer’s big game gig. “Kendrick Lamar is truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer,” he said via statement.
“His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision. 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.”
Super Bowl LIX will be played on February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, and will be broadcast on Fox.
