Here's Why Kendrick Lamar Won’t Get Paid For The Super Bowl Halftime Show
Forbes Talks
Forbes Media LLC
5 • 4 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
The effects of last summer’s rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake continue to reverberate through the music industry, and the careers of its two combatants. Earlier this month, Drake made headlines for bringing a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group for its role in the back-and-forth, while Lamar prepares for the biggest gig of his life—headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl LIX on February 9.
It's hard to imagine how the 37-year-old Lamar, who for much of his career has been seen as a critical darling with a cult-like following, would have been chosen by halftime show executive producer Jay-Z and his Roc Nation for music’s biggest stage were it not for the beef and series of diss tracks it produced. “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s anthemic takedown of hip-hop’s best-selling artist, hit more than a billion streams on Spotify in 2024 and spent a record-setting 21 consecutive weeks atop Billboard’s hot rap songs chart.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Feuding with Drake may have turned Kendrick Lamar into hip-hop's hottest artist, and now he'll take music's biggest stage in New Orleans for free. |
| 0:11.7 | Here to discuss what to expect from this year's Super Bowl halftime show is Forbes reporter Matt Craig. |
| 0:16.6 | Matt, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 0:17.7 | Thank you, Brittany. It's been a while. |
| 0:18.9 | It has been a while, but I'm excited to talk today, especially about the Super Bowl. |
| 0:24.3 | What we know, the Eagles are playing the Chiefs. |
| 0:26.8 | What we also know is Kendrick Lamar is the halftime performer. |
| 0:30.2 | Aside from the game, many people tune in just for that show. |
| 0:34.3 | So why was he picked, dive into that choice, especially in light of his recent feud with Drake? |
| 0:40.2 | Absolutely. |
| 0:41.2 | I mean, I think you could make a strong case that he would not have been picked for the |
| 0:45.1 | show if it weren't for the feud with Drake. |
| 0:48.2 | How he was picked, of course, since 2019, Jay-Z and his company, Rock Nation have been the |
| 0:53.4 | executive producers of the Super Bowl halftime show. |
| 0:57.3 | And Apple, I mean, Apple Music and the NFL, like, task them with kind of choosing the performers. |
| 1:03.0 | And since then, we've gotten younger performers, obviously more diverse performers, a lot of hip-hop artists. |
| 1:08.6 | And Kendrick is kind of seen as, you know, the hottest artists in hip-hop right now. But the reason for that is because of his-hop artists. And Kendrick is kind of seen as the hottest artist in hip-hop right now. |
| 1:12.6 | But the reason for that is because of his beef with Drake. |
| 1:15.6 | I mean, Drake is probably the most successful commercially of any of the rappers and hip-hop artists right now. |
| 1:21.6 | And Kendrick went back and forth with them, and I know a lot of people, it's not unanimous, |
| 1:26.6 | but a lot of people think that he won that exchange. And and since then that's kind of put him in front of new audiences |
| 1:31.3 | and launched into another level and of course the Super Bowl show will take that even up another |
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