Rapper Kendrick Lamar will be the main performer at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in New Orleans, as announced by the National Football League (NFL).
Lamar is one of the most awarded rappers ever, with 17 Grammy Awards, 29 BET Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize for music in 2018, being the first musician outside classical or jazz to win this honour.
Roc Nation and Jesse Collins, an Emmy-winning producer, will be co-executive producers of the Apple Music halftime show.
Jay-Z, founder of Roc Nation, praised Lamar, calling him “a once-in-a-generation artist” with a great love for hip-hop and culture, influencing people worldwide through his music.
Lamar’s 2024 single “Not Like Us,” a diss track aimed at Drake, became a hit, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and quickly gaining 700 million streams on Spotify. Lamar hasn’t released an album since 2022’s “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” but he became famous in the early 2010s with his second album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City,” which achieved triple platinum status.
“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, 37, said in the statement released by the NFL on Sunday.
Super Bowl LIX is scheduled for 9th February. Lamar previously performed at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in Los Angeles in 2022.