Kendrick Lamar, the Grammy-winning hip-hop sensation, had the honor of making headlines this past Sunday, all due to his performance at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. However, the performance has received its fair share of mixed reviews from critics and fans.
Innumerable people, including Cleveland Browns cornerback Denzel Ward, took a dig at Lamar for having a mediocre halftime show. Rhett Lashlee, the SMU football coach, was much harsher with his opinion. He wrote, “Exercising my rare right to be a fan … worst halftime show ever.”
Even though Kendrick received a lot of criticism online, his Super Bowl halftime performance has made history. It was revealed on Tuesday that Lamar’s musical performance broke the record for being the most-watched halftime show in the history of the NFL, with 133.5 million viewers.
Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance was colossal middle finger at Trump and the worst of US history, writes @EdgeofSports.https://t.co/YpsnAxulCB
— The Nation (@thenation) February 10, 2025
In spite of the historic victory, former Fox Sports personality Jason Whitlock was not very impressed with Kendrick Lamar. Whitlock claimed that the NFL missed the mark when they decided to hand the Super Bowl halftime show to Kendrick. He believes that Kendrick is not as well known as someone like Justin Timberlake.
“The reason you put a Michael Jackson out there, the reason you put a Janet Jackson, a Justin Timberlake out there] is because they have so many crossover, major, major songs that when they start to play them, the audience goes, ‘Oh! I remember that song!’ and they start screaming and clapping,” Whitlock said. “Even when they had Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, their catalog of music is so pervasive. There are so many classic songs that people have partied to at some point,” he added.
Whitlock then made a controversial accusation on Kendrick’s halftime show and said it was anti-American. He is convinced it was done intentionally. “There’s so much money in taking a dump on America and traditional sports fans,” Whitlock continued. “People didn’t get it. They intended for you to be asleep. Or maybe Roger Goodell is smart. There’s so much money in hating America that perhaps the NFL gave people exactly what they wanted.”
Kendrick did a patriotic half time show and the usual suspects still found it offensively “anti-American”
it’s so obvious what it is
— Nait Jones 🇺🇸 (@NaithanJones) February 10, 2025
Previously, Kendrick’s halftime performance was also accused of ‘reverse racism’. Some critics accused Kendrick of racism for casting only Black performers at his show. However, netizens and content creators have supported Lamar and emphasized the deeper meaning of his performance. Kendrick Lamar had his performers dressed in red, white and blue. There were moments when they separated. The reds are on one side, the whites are on another, and the blues are somewhere else. But in the end, they all came together to make the American flag.
Despite the constant backlash, Lamar has not responded to any of the comments, be it from critics or pundits like Whitlock. For what it is worth, Kendrick was not paid for his performance. However, his crew was paid the usual halftime performer’s union scale.
