Kendrick Lamar to Headline The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, September 9, 2024 - 11:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The final year of rap-industry macher Jay-Z's five-year, $25-million deal with the NFL that has remade the Super Bowl's ionic halftime spectacle around the larger music industry's - and the world's - broad embrace of hip-hop culture now has its endgame. The NFL announced on Sunday, as the season's Week 1 games were about to get underway, that rapper Kendrick Lamar would be Super Bowl LIX's halftime music artist.
The announcement was a joint communiqu , from the league, halftime-event sponsor Apple, and Roc Nation, Jay-Z's production company. The show will take place on Sunday, February 9, 2025, airing on Fox, from the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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, Lamar was quoted as saying in the announcement's press release.
Like Jay-Z, Lamar is as much an entrepreneur as an artist. Co-founder of music and visual media production firm pgLang, Lamar is also a 17-time Grammy Award winner and the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his 2017 album DAMN.
Few artists have impacted music and culture as profoundly as Kendrick Lamar, said Seth Dudowsky, the NFL's Head of Music. Time and time again, Kendrick has proven his unique ability to craft moments that resonate, redefine, and ultimately shake the very foundation of hip-hop. We're excited to collaborate with Kendrick, Roc Nation, and Apple Music to deliver another unforgettable halftime show.
The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show telecast will be produced by DPS, which has produced four Super Bowl halftime shows that have received multiple Primetime Emmy Award nominations and one win. The most recent, led by Usher in 2024, averaged 129.3 million viewers - is the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show on record.
Good Timing
The Roc Nation-NFL halftime show relationship has proven both well-timed and very effective. As Vice President Kamala Harris put it prominently and succinctly on her Facebook page, Let's be clear: Hip hop culture is America's culture. And since Roc Nation has managed the music for the annual event, its numbers have steadily improved. This year's Super Bowl LVIII starring Usher as the featured performer became the most-watched halftime performance of all time, garnering three 2024 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Variety Special (Live). In 2023, The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show starring Rihanna scored five Emmy nominations, taking home two, including Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special, a first in Super Bowl Halftime history. In 2022, Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, which celebrated hip-hop's 50th anniversary, featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar and garnered five Creative Arts Emmy nominations. The critically acclaimed performance won three Emmys.
Battle Royale
In addition to his massive fan base and litany of accomplishments, Kendrick will also bring to the Super Bowl a notorious and long-running feud with Drake, his one-time collaborator and, since an escalating series of disses and highly public insults starting in 2013, his nemesis.
The contentious relationship has been a rap version of the famous Hatfields and McCoys vendetta in 19th-century Appalachia. It added a political angle when in 2016 during an interview with several YouTube influencers, then-President Barack Obama was asked if he thought Drake or Lamar would win in a rap battle. Obama responded: Gotta go with Kendrick. I think Drake is an outstanding entertainer. But Kendrick, his lyrics [for To Pimp a Butterfly'] was outstanding. Best album, I think, last year. Two weeks later, Drake released the track Summer Sixteen, dissing Obama and rapping: Tell Obama that my verses are just like the whips that he in / They bulletproof.
(Drake is no slouch when it comes to Grammy Awards - he has five - but he had also boycotted the nominating process for several years, contending at it didn't sufficiently address hip-hop as a genre.)
The situation brings with it the potential for any number of narrative arcs, but the betting seems to be that Lamar has won the battle, with The Ringer asserting that Kendrick's Super Bowl appearance caps his rise to the highest levels of pop culture, while conversely sinking Drake to the lowest levels of his career.
It's a melodramatic contention, but the just the gossipy sort, and with very high stakes, that sports and entertainment thrive on. Expect plenty of sparks from both rap camps between now and next February.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
Kendrick Lamar to Headline The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
