Who is Kendrick Lamar? Revisiting his beef with Drake ahead of the Super Bowl halftime show.

The Super Bowl halftime show debuted in 1967, featuring marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling College (now, Grambling State University) performing The Sound of Music and When the Saints Go Marching In. Since then, the show has expanded into one of the biggest attractions — featuring some of the most popular names in music.

The halftime show has featured artists such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and The Rolling Stones. It has also given fans some iconic moments such as Prince performing Purple Rain — in the pouring rain — Beyoncé reuniting with Destiny’s Child, Rihanna’s baby bump, and Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

This year’s halftime show will most likely give fans even more iconic moments. Rapper Kendrick Lamar will perform with special guest singer and songwriter SZA. Here’s everything you need to know about Lamar ahead of his Super Bowl LIX halftime performance.

This question has quite a few answers. Kendrick Lamar is also Kung Fu Kenny, K-Dot, Mr. Morale, and Pulitzer Kenny. Lamar goes by many aliases and G.O.A.T. may be his favorite one — but for the sake of this story, we’ll call him Lamar.

Lamar is a 22-time Grammy-winning hip-hop recording artist from Compton, Calif. He’s the only male rapper in history to win five Grammys in one night — and he’s done that three times (2016, 2018, 2025). And he’s the only rapper to ever win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album DAMN. Lamar has immensely impacted the hip-hop industry. He was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2016.

The rapper was previously signed with Top Dawg Entertainment and recorded five studio albums with Top Dawg, before founding his own record label, P.G. Lang, in 2020. His most recent album and the sixth studio album, GNX, was released through P.G. Lang and Interscope Records. The album features various West Coast recording artists and breathed new life into his long-existing beef with Canadian rapper Drake.

The easy answer to this question can be that the beef began with the release of the song Like That in 2024. This was a song by Future and Metro Boomin that featured a verse from Lamar where he delivered a sharp diss to both Drake and J. Cole in response to their song First Person Shooter — claiming there’s a “big three” in hip-hop, Drake, Cole, and Lamar.

But this entire beef really started years ago when Lamar dropped his verse on Big Sean’s Control song in 2013. Lamar name-drops a number of rappers, including Drake, and Drake didn’t take this lightly. Since then, they’ve thrown subliminal shots at one another through their music. Like That was the first time Lamar really called out Drake’s name again.

But there wasn’t always a beef between the two rappers. Lamar joined Drake on his “Take Care” tour in 2011 and the artists collaborated on Lamar’s song Poetic Justice in 2012. Another Drake and Lamar collab seems like a long shot now after the multiple diss tracks they’ve dropped this past year.

After Like That was released, Drake responded with a diss track of his own, titled Push Ups. But it didn’t stop there; 11 days later, Lamar released another furious six-minute diss called Euphoria. Days later, he dropped another song called 6:16 in LA, which led to Drake releasing a song called Family Matters. But once again, it didn’t stop there — Lamar dropped two more diss tracks on the same day, Meet the Grahams and Not Like Us.

Not Like Us has grown in popularity, racking up 96 million streams in one week and recently winning five Grammys — including Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rap Song, Best Music Video, and Best Rap Performance.

Fans can expect to hear the five-time Grammy-winning song during Sunday’s Super Bowl performance. How many times will Lamar perform it? That should be a prop bet of its own. The last time Lamar performed Not Like Us on stage was during his Pop Out concert in California on June 19. The rapper performed the song five times as everyone joined in dancing — including NBA players Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan, both from Los Angeles.

But if you miss Lamar’s performance on Sunday, you can catch him in concert during his stadium tour with SZA beginning in April.

Since the release of Not Like Us, Drake has filed a lawsuit for defamation and harassment against Universal Music Group — which represents both artists. The lawsuit accuses UMG of defamation by publishing and spreading a “false and malicious narrative.”

The lawsuit alleges that UMG “approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.” Now, Drake is seeking nominal, punitive, and compensatory damages.