Kendrick Lamar sat for a rare interview today (Feb. 6) about his career and performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show this Sunday, although he didn’t tip his hand when asked about the set list by Apple Music’s Ebro Darden and Nadeska Alexis.
“I love being present. It’s very hard for me to live in the past,” said the rapper, whose latest album, GNX, came out in November. “I respect the past wholeheartedly, but being in the now and being locked into how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me. That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans.”
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Asked what viewers should expect on Sunday, Lamar offered, “storytelling. I think I’ve always been very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history in music. I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on, whether it’s a tour of 500 people at [Los Angeles venue] Key Club. Make people listen, but also see and think a little.”
The Halftime Show is not only a major moment for Lamar but his longtime collaborator SZA, who will join him onstage, and his pgLang company, which is creative directing the performance. “That’s us sitting day-in, day-out, from the edits, the production, the stage design, the music, sound, tech — it’s everything across the board and it takes a lot of work and a lot of creative individuals,” he said, specifically mentioning his pgLang partner Dave Free.
As for SZA, he said the pair “haven’t really gotten a chance to settle into” the enormity of the moment, but that it’s “amazing” to see her success. “She always had it, man,” he said. “She always had it. I’m just honored to be next to her talent.”
The Compton, Ca., native admitted he “wasn’t thinking about no Super Bowl, fo sho” when he was a fledgling artist without a record deal. “We was thinking about the best verse and how we were gonna split this five dollars at Church’s Chicken or something like that,” he said. “The passion I have now is still the passion I had them. Being present and not actually foreseeing everything kept me in a grounded state of mind in order to be on big stages like this.”
The hosts did not directly address the anti-Drake content in Lamar’s 2024 smash hit “Not Like Us,” which recently won both the Record and Song of the Year Grammys, but the artist sketched a through line back from the song to the things that have motivated him since the beginning. “My intent, from day one, was to always keep the nature of it as a sport. I love when artists grit their teeth,” he said. “I still watch Battle Raps. I still watch Smack/URL. This has always been the core definition of who I am. I don’t think it was a thing [just] for this year. It was always just a continuum.”
Lamar said listeners could hear the DNA of influences such as DJ Quik and Dr. Dre on early album such as good kid, m.A.A.d city, but that he “wanted to tell my story first. Fast forward to GNX, and there was an energy bubbling inside of me — all raps and hard-ass beats. That’s the basics for me. Hard raps, good beats. Just smacking. It was a great transition from [2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers], because that was my most intimate. I wanted to go into my own psyche.”
The artist said he usually prepares for big moments like the Super Bowl by doing some pushups or listening to the Isley Brothers, and was also asked by a young journalist for advice on how to stay authentic. “You have to believe in yourself and have to know that there’s only one you. You’re a miracle,” he said. “When you really sit down and think about it, it’s wild. When everyone’s authentic, what comes out of that is true love with no boundaries.”
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