Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show: Playstation symbols and "Game Over" for Drake

Domagoj Belancic

10-2-2025

Translation: machine translated

For many viewers, the half-time show is the real highlight of the Super Bowl. This year, Kendrick Lamar was allowed to perform his hits on the big stage - with giant Playstation symbols and a "Game Over" announcement to Drake.

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the world. The final game of the NFL season is watched live by millions of football fans every year. In addition to the football game itself, the usually spectacularly staged half-time show is also a constant source of discussion

Kendrick Lamar did the honours at this year's 59th edition of the Super Bowl. The best cents of all time for many fans performed a series of hits from his impressive repertoire - from new bangers like "Squabble Up" to classics like "Humble" and "DNA". The now legendary diss ("Not Like Us") against Canadian rapper and singer Drake also found its place on the setlist - more on that below.

Especially striking: Kendrick made use of numerous gaming references during his half-time show - both in the stage design and in his performance. You can watch the whole show on YouTube.

Playstation icons and game references

The stage for Kendrick's grandiose performance is relatively simple compared to past Super Bowl halftime shows. It consists of a large area reminiscent of a tarmac road with lampposts

Around the road are four symbols that should be familiar to the Playstation audience: a rectangle, a triangle, a cross and a circle. The show begins with the glowing symbols and typical 8-bit gaming sounds.

Many fans who watched the performance live wondered whether the symbols were a deliberate reference to Sony's console. In an interview with "Wired" shortly after the performance, the team behind the stage design gave an insight into the creative development process.

Shelly Rogers, the art director of the halftime show, confirms that the idea for the Playstation icons came directly from Kendrick: "[The gaming topic] was symbolic. His way of reaching young people. A lot of it shows his journey [...] through the American dream". The symbols and song selection are intended to portray Kendrick's life as a game. However, there does not appear to have been any official cooperation with Sony.

Actor legend Samuel L. Jackson also makes a surprising guest appearance in the half-time show - as the black "Uncle Sam". He comments on the action between the songs and embellishes the storytelling framework with further game references. "This is the great american game" announces Jackson Kendrick's performance. In between, he criticises the songs played - they are too "ghetto" and the audience doesn't like them. "Mister Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!" the black Uncle Sam cheers on the cents.

The performance and the game references are the subject of much discussion on social media. Like Kendrick's other works, his Super Bowl performance is a multi-layered and socially critical work of art that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. For example, "bet.com" describes the Playstation controller stage design and the performance as "[symbolising] the intersection of entertainment, capitalism and control". A not-so-subtle allusion to the way black culture [in America] is often treated as a commodity."

"Game Over" for Drake - despite legal action against Universal and Spotify

Also worth noting is that Kendrick performed his biggest hit of the past year, "Not Like Us", at the Super Bowl. The song is a diss track against the Canadian rapper and singer Drake.

The two have been trading blows for several weeks over the past year with increasingly harsh diss tracks. In "Not Like Us", Drake is portrayed as a devious exploiter of hip-hop culture and a paedophile.

Kendrick is generally recognised as the winner of this epic battle. "Not Like Us" became the most successful song to date for the artist from Compton, Los Angeles. As if the commercial success wasn't enough, Kendrick recently won five (!) Grammys for the diss.

Rival Drake has tried everything in his power in recent weeks to prevent Kendrick from performing the song at the Super Bowl. In a claim, which has since been withdrawn, the Canadian artist accused his own label Universal of artificially inflating the streaming figures for "Not Like Us". This included bots and bribes to Spotify.

A thorn in Drake's side are also the statements in the song that refer to him as a paedophile, which is why he has accused Universal of misrepresentation and harassment.

Kendrick makes reference to the legal action during his performance: "I wanna perform their favourite song. But you know they like to sue". However, Kendrick doesn't seem to be overly impressed by Drake's complaints. So he performs the fans' favourite song shortly before the show closes.

"Say Drake, I hear you like them young" he raps into the camera with a smile. Over 65,000 fans in the arena cents loudly along to the track's most famous quote with the genius play on words: "Why you trollin' like a bitch? Ain't you tired?

Tryna strike a chord and it's probably a minor".

Finally, Kendrick also packs the Drake diss into the gaming story frame, projecting a giant "Game Over" on the audience. Kendrick has won the Super Bowl.

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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