While much of the action from the 2025 Super Bowl happened during the game itself, the Kendrick Lamar halftime show was also filled with drama.

Occurring during the Philadelphia Eagles’s 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar’s performance elicited a range of reactions from viewers online, all the way from birthing new meme formats to celebrities bemoaning it as boring.

The social media reaction to the Kendrick Lamar halftime show is an intriguing example of music crossing over with sports, and when even art has to either “win” or “lose.”

First though, let’s dive into some context.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar took to the stage in New Orleans at Super Bowl LIX for his halftime show, a performance you can watch in full here.

Samuel L. Jackson kicked off the gig with a monologue, and continued to narrate it throughout. On stage, Lamar was joined by SZA, his labelmate, and DJ Mustard, the producer of “Not Like Us,” his grammy-winning song.

Serena Williams also made an appearance that was widely shared:

The rapper played seven tracks during the halftime show, including "DNA," “Euphoria,” and “Humble.”

There have been a wide gamut of reactions online to Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show. Some online are praising its artfulness:

While others, such as standup Theo Von, declared it dull:

There were a deluge of posts about Kendrick mentioning Drake, a musician who is engaged in a longstanding beef with Lamar:

Various accounts praised this move:

But others weren’t so keen:

The conversation and memes around Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show are still in full swing. In fact, at the time of writing, “Kendrick” is the number one trending term in the United States On Twitter/X.

So why are people so invested in a musician’s performance at a football game?

The Super Bowl halftime show is a unique event, one that may be the biggest televised live performance in the world. It’s so popular that, sometimes, more see the gig than the game.

In 2023 for example, Rihanna reached 121 million concurrent viewers during her performance. While, according to Nielsen, only 113.06 million people watched the Super Bowl match itself.

The reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s performance on social media begins here. That’s a huge number of people watching.

Then we have to consider how they’re watching. Music is rarely judged like sports, with winning and losing not baked into the industry. Yes, there are awards, but these happen infrequently, and aren’t the week-in, week-out victories and defeats you find in a league like the NFL.

But by having a musician perform in the middle of a football game there’s a subconscious encouragement to treat the show like a sporting event: did the musician win or lose? Did you like it or not? And social media plays a key role in people trying to judge whether Lamar was victorious or not during his halftime show.

Then there’s the nature of his music itself.

Kendrick Lamar makes lyrically dense hip-hop and is known for his flirtations with jazz, especially on records like To Pimp A Butterfly. He’s undoubtedly a popular musician, but one that has alternative and underground leanings.

As a point of comparison, the aforementioned Rihanna has sold 60 million albums worldwide, while Lamar has managed to ship 10.2 million.

This doesn’t mean that Lamar isn’t a hugely popular mainstream rapper (he just won five Grammys after all), more that he makes music that may not be as broadly palatable as, say, Maroon 5.

Yes, Kendrick Lamar is mainstream, but considering the size of the Super Bowl audience, it’s shouldn’t come as a shock if lots of viewers aren’t enamored with an artist like Lamar who plays a more confrontational type of music than figures such as Usher, Prince, or Rihanna.

Don’t forget, none of those artists won a Grammy for a Drake diss track.

There are several factors at play behind the reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show. The combination of the performance being treated like an extension of sport and him making alternative-influenced music means that not only will many people not enjoy the show, but they’ll also feel compelled to judge it.

The Super Bowl halftime show is a worldwide institution, and while fans might be mixed about it now, only time will tell how Kendrick Lamar ranks against the greats. All that’s left to say is good luck to whoever performs in 2026.