Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show: Kendrick Lamar & ‘Not Like Us’

There was one thing that we knew we were going to be getting for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show: A performance of “Not Like Us.” Why wouldn’t we? We are, after all, talking about one of Kendrick Lamar’s most-famous songs from an incredible career, let alone what may be thought of as one of the greatest diss tracks in recent memory.

Heck, there were jokes heading into halftime that Kendrick was just going to be doing the same song over and over again.

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So what did we actually get here? Well, more than “Not Like Us” — rather, this was an extended medley of a lot of Lamar’s signature songs accompanied by a number of dancers in a strict American-flag theme.

More so than getting into every single song here, the biggest thing to praise here is Kendrick himself — he never let the spectacle around him overwhelm his lyrics and his stage presence was incredible from start to finish. Also, casting Samuel L. Jackson as a version of Uncle Sam was brilliant.

Then, we got to “Not Like Us”

We will say that Kendrick took his time getting there, almost teasing the audience that it was going to be coming at some point.

How this all compares to other halftime shows is going to really come down to your general sentiment about the genre. From our perspective, this was outstanding. Lamar is one of the most talented rappers of the past decade, and this was as wonderful a showcase of his skills as you could ever want. One of the better shows in the past few years — focused, and very much about substance over style. We’ll take that any day of the week.

Related – Learn more about the National Anthem now from earlier on in Super Bowl LIX

What did you think about Kendrick Lamar’s performance during the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show?

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