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
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Kendrick Lamar to Headline The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
