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Less than a year after setting off a rap beef of epic proportions, Kendrick Lamar<\/strong> used the Apple Music Super Bowl 2025 halftime show to settle the score by concluding with \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d the Drake<\/strong> diss track that turned into a pop hit.<\/p>\n \u201cSay Drake, I hear you like \u2018em young,\u201d he said, going into the verse that led Drake to sue Lamar\u2019s record label, Universal Music Group<\/a>. The crowd erupted into a cheer when he sang \u201ctryna strike a chord, and it\u2019s probably A Minor,\u201d the same line that garnered the biggest response during his Grammys 2025<\/a> performance last Sunday. During the song, the camera cut away to fellow Compton native Serena Williams<\/strong> doing the C walk.<\/p>\n On stage atop a Buick GNX, a reference to the title of Lamar\u2019s most recent album, he played its first two songs \u201cWacced Out Murals\u201d and \u201cSquabble Up.\u201d Before launching into \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d he teased it in a back and forth with a few of his dancers. \u201cHey ladies, I wanna play your favorite song,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you know they love to sue.\u201d About halfway through the show, he was joined by SZA<\/strong>, and together they performed \u201cLuther\u201d and their Grammy-winning Black Panther<\/em> collaboration, \u201cAll The Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n An overtone of patriotism anchored the set, which was made to resemble a video game controller. Lamar was flanked by dancers wearing red, white, and blue, and the show was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson<\/strong> in costume as Uncle Sam. \u201cMr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!\u201d he said, before the opening moments of \u201cHUMBLE.\u201d from Lamar’s 2018 album DAMN.<\/em><\/p>\n The inclusion of the lines dissing Drake on the nation\u2019s biggest stage is a sign that the feud isn\u2019t going anywhere. For about a decade, Lamar and Drake were considered rivals for the title of \u201cbest commercially successful millennial rapper,\u201d but their personal relationship was seemingly fine. All that changed in March 2024, when Lamar used a guest verse on \u201cLike That\u201d by Future<\/strong> and Metro Boomin<\/strong> to dismiss Drake and J. Cole<\/strong> as his competition. It\u2019s not the \u201cbig three,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s just big me,\u201d a response to Drake\u2019s track \u201cFirst Person Shooter,\u201d on which Cole raps, \u201cLove when they argue the hardest MC. \/ Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? \/ We the big three like we started a league. \/ But right now, I feel like Muhammad Ali.\u201d<\/p>\n Lamar\u2019s verse set off a tit-for-tat that continued through the spring, eventually giving way to disses about their personal lives with increasingly controversial and specific allegations. On May 4, Lamar all but ended the battle when he released \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d which takes aim at Drake in a package so catchy it raced to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Last weekend, Lamar took home the coveted Grammy Awards for song and record of the year, entering the track into the history books.<\/p>\n Lamar was announced as the halftime performer back in September<\/a>, and the beef between the rapper and his rival was a focus as the night drew closer. But over the last few days, politics started to intervene. On Tuesday<\/a>, a spokesman for the Secret Service announced that President Donald Trump planned to attend the game. On the same day<\/a>, the NFL announced that it planned to remove the slogan of its \u201cEnd Racism\u201d campaign from the end zone, replacing it with \u201cChoose Love.\u201d Though Lamar is generally a politically outspoken artist, he avoided any more overt political comments in his set.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n