Sunday’s Super Bowl will answer several questions for football fans and casual viewers alike. Can the Kansas City Chiefs become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowl titles? Will Saquon Barkley prove that the running back position still matters? How will Kendrick Lamar perform a song that accuses Drake of being a pedophile in front of a national audience of more than 100 million viewers?
Come again?
While Kendrick Lamar might not be as high profile of an artist as recent Super Bowl halftime performers such as Usher, Rihanna, Eminem and Dr. Drew, the 37-year-old Compton native is unquestionably one of the most intriguing Super Bowl halftime show acts in recent memory. That’s because his ascent from critically acclaimed rapper to A-list celebrity coincided with his high profile feud with Drake, culminating with the smash hit diss track “Not Like Us,” in which Lamar accuses — both implicitly and explicitly — the Toronto native of being a pedophile.
Lamar’s selection as the halftime performer at this Sunday’s Super Bowl raised plenty of eyebrows, with many wondering how he’ll approach performing the song on national television during the most-watched event of the year. And those questions only became more pertinent in light of the defamation lawsuit that Drake filed against Universal Music Group over the song, in which Lamar refers to him as a “certified pedophile.”
According to TMZ, Kendrick Lamar is, in fact, expected to perform “Not Like Us” as a part of Sunday’s halftime show. As for how censored the song will be, that will be up to the lawyers to decide.
Per the outlet, lawyers from both the NFL and Fox will look over the lyrics from Lamar’s setlist and determine if there is anything that will get the league or network in trouble with the FCC. And considering Drake’s pending litigation regarding the song in question, there are also additional concerns that exist, in addition to the potential political ramifications, which AA’s Sean Keeley detailed in the latest edition of The A Block newsletter.
“What the lawyers have to decide is whether to broadcast the lyrics that allegedly defame Drake, and risk a potential lawsuit,” TMZ reports.
Once Kendrick Lamar performs the song — which will presumably be pre-recorded — both the NFL and Fox will have separate censors prepared with the broadcast airing on a five-second delay. TMZ also notes that CBS also faced a similar issue during this past Sunday’s Grammy Awards and opted to include the portion of the song in which Lamar refers to Drake as a “certified pedophile” as it played following the rapper’s victory for Record of the Year.
KENDRICK LAMAR WINS RECORD OF THE YEAR FOR “NOT LIKE US”
AND THE WHOLE ARENA WAS SINGING ALONG WHEN WE WENT UP TO THE STAGE
LMFAOOOOO#GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/RYaCh0Sk3W
— FADE (@FadeAwayMedia) February 3, 2025
While rehearsals for the Super Bowl halftime show will reportedly take place Thursday, we won’t know until Sunday how Kendrick Lamar — as well as Fox and the NFL — ultimately handle the song. Until then, the only thing that seems certain is that Drake will be among the millions of people keeping a close eye on Sunday’s performance.
