Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl 2025 halftime show on Sunday night was dripping with secret messages.
The rapper, 37, appeared at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles game. He brought special guests such as SZA and Serena Williams.
Some critics have called Kendrick’s performance the ‘worst ever’ halftime show. However, those who paid attention would have noticed the symbolic messages embedded in it.
At the top of his set, Kendrick, 37, appeared to make a dig at President Donald Trump, who was among the high-profile attendees in the crowd.
Addressing the audience, Kendrick said: ‘The revolution is about to be televised; You picked the right time but the wrong guy.’
Kendrick, a multi-Grammy award-winner, referenced Gil Scott-Heron’s famous 1971 poem, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which addresses the Black power movement of the 1960s.
However, Kendrick’s mention of the ‘wrong guy’ sent the internet into a frenzy, immediately leading them to believe he was referencing January’s US Election.
‘Kendrick literally protested, and taunted America in front of the president during America’s biggest sports event. Chefs kiss,’ one viewer wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
‘Still thinking about Kendrick opening with the line ‘the revolution will be televised and you chose the wrong guy’ while Trump was sitting right there,’ another said. ‘Incredible move.’
Elsewhere, Kendrick’s back-up dancers were dressed in red, white and blue, in reference to the American flag.
During the rapper’s track Humble, they stood in formation on the stage making the flag much clearer to see.
At first, the dancers were unified, but seconds into the track they divided in half with Kendrick standing in-between them.
Some eagle-eyed audiences noted this and deduced that the group was split to show how the country is politically and culturally divided.
Others noticed that all of Kendrick’s dancers were Black, which was an apparent nod to America’s history of slavery.
‘Black folk representing the American flag because modern America was built on our labor… Kendrick I see you,’ said one.
Another wrote: ‘Kendrick creating the American flag and then splitting it in half to symbolize the country’s divineness… the amount of amazingly executed political symbolism in this one performance… I’m going to have to sit down with a notebook and pen.’
A third said: ‘Kendrick making the American flag out of black men was absolutely beautiful, and the message was clear.
‘Black people built America, and the same people that he was embracing are now calling the performance boring.’
Towards the end of his set, Kendrick performed his infamous Drake dis track Not Like Us.
It was during this song that tennis legend Serena, 43, made her surprise appearance where she crip walked to an eruption of applause from the crowd.
And her involvement with the show served as another dig at Canadian rapper Drake, 38.
Before marrying her husband Alexis Ohanian in 2017, Serena was romantically linked to Drake with rumors of an alleged romance circulating in 2015.
The rapper even mentioned Serena in his songs and also made appearances at her tennis tournaments.
TMZ added more fuel to the fire by publishing photos of the two of them at a Cincinnati restaurant having a romantic dinner after she had won the Western and Southern Open.
Despite the rumours, Serena moved on and married Reddit co-founder Alexis, and the pair share two children together.
Drake, however, took aim at her husband Alexis on his song Middle of The Ocean from his 2022 album Her Loss.
In the song, he raps: ‘Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don’t got a problem but / No boo, it is like you coming for sushi.’
Alexis responded with a tweet saying: ‘The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do – including being the best groupie for my wife [and] daughter.’
Before inviting Serena to join him at the Super Bowl, Kendrick voiced his support for Serena on his diss track Not Like US, warning Drake: ‘Better not speak on Serena.’
