Kendrick Lamar and SZA to Pop Out at the Super Bowl

Louisiana, it’s time to sing in A-minor. Rapper/The People vs. Canada winner Kendrick Lamar is set to perform at this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans on February 9. And SZA’s coming, he revealed in a January 23 teaser: Before he can get out the words “guest performance,” SZA dumps a keg of Gatorade on him. It makes sense that she’ll be performing, given the two are about to headline a stadium tour together this summer. We hope she sings “F2F” — now that’s a rager. It will be the second time Lamar has appeared on the Super Bowl stage, following his brief set in 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and 50 Cent.

“My name is Kendrick Lamar, and I will be performing at Super Bowl 59. Will you be pulling up? I hope so,” the rapper said in a video posted to his socials. He also added, in a nod to this summer’s scorching beef against Drake, “You know it’s only one opportunity to win a championship — no round twos.” Drizzy famously teased a “round two” to their feud but has yet to deliver on the promise.

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Before closing his tour for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers in March, Kendrick was referenced by J. Cole in Drake’s “First Person Shooter”: “Is it KDot, is it Aubrey, or me? / We the big three like we started a league / But right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.” Kendrick’s response? “Motherfuck the big three, n- – -a / It’s just big me” — thus kicking off one of the biggest rap beefs in decades, capped off by him performing the chart-topping Drake coup de grâce “Not Like Us” six times at his The Pop Out: Ken and Friends concert in June. Kendrick got another boost later in the year thanks to Vice-President Kamala Harris selecting Beyoncé’s “Freedom” — which he guests on — as her official campaign song. But it was winning the Drake feud that seemingly propelled KDot to the halftime stage. The announcement is not only a major career milestone, it’s another win in his ongoing fight with Drake, who famously rapped “Big as the Super Bowl” in “First Person Shooter,” despite never having performed the halftime set in the first place.

Plenty of time to catch up on the long tit-for-tat between the two rap titans and come up with your own halftime song predictions (mine are below):

This post has been updated.

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