Kendrick Lamar skewers Drake with Not Like Us performance at Super Bowl halftime show

"Salutations!" said the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, as he introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans' Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper started with GNX moving into Squabble Up. And for just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.

Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colours, they were labelled "too loud, too reckless, too ghetto," by Jackson's Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to "play the game." Then, Lamar launched into Humble., DNA., Euphoria and man at the garden.

"Score keeper, deduct one life," Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into peakboo and then teased a performance of Not Like Us.

"I wanna play their favourite song but you know they love to sue," Lamar told the women dancers behind him, referencing the Canadian rapper Drake.

With its billion streams on Spotify, the massive hit Not Like Us is a regional anthem for Los Angeles, a rallying cry for community and against culture vultures, a diss track that won Lamar the highly-publicized feud with Drake and the track that won song and record of the year at the Grammys last weekend.

Leading up to the Super Bowl, whether or not Lamar would perform the song was a legitimate question held by fans and critics alike. Lamar levels strong accusations against Drake in its lyrics; Drake has sued Universal Music Group for defamation as a result of the song's popularity. Many questioned whether a Super Bowl performance further complicates things.

Little was known about Lamar's