JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The NFL kicked off the first football Sunday of the season with a big announcement - the halftime performer for Super Bowl 59 next February will be rapper Kendrick Lamar.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KENDRICK LAMAR: What the deal, everybody? My name Kendrick Lamar, and I'll be performing at Super Bowl 59. Will you be pulling up? I hope so.
SUMMERS: NPR music correspondent Rodney Carmichael is here to explain why this is a big deal for the NFL and why it is not without a little controversy. Hey, Rodney.
RODNEY CARMICHAEL, BYLINE: Hey, Juana. How you doing?
SUMMERS: Hey, there. All right, looking at my calendar, still five months away from the big game, but already it feels like Kendrick might be the winner of the Super Bowl. I mean, this is a pretty huge year for him so far.
CARMICHAEL: Yeah. So Kendrick - he's been, like, the biggest winner in rap all year long. I mean, first off, he put hip-hop back on the top of the charts after, you know, kind of a somewhat off year in 2023 for the genre. Then he defeated the best-selling rapper Drake in one of the biggest hip-hop battles in history. And the final song in that beef, "Not Like Us," has been in the Billboard Hot 100's top 10 all summer long.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOT LIKE US")
LAMAR: (Rapping) They not like us. They not like us. They not like us.
CARMICHAEL: But, you know, it's not like this is an uncontested victory for Kendrick, and people have had some immediate criticism.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "IT IS WHAT IT IS")
CAM'RON: Listen, I love Kendrick Lamar. I loved The Pop Out. I think he's one of the top artists of this generation, period. Hate this selection. It's in New Orleans. You don't get Lil Wayne? That's what we doing?
CARMICHAEL: Yeah, that's New York rapper Cam'ron on his sports show, and he's echoing the sentiment of a whole lot of hip-hop fans and artists.
SUMMERS: OK, listen, I like Lil Wayne, too. But help us understand. Let's get into it. Why are so many people out there pulling for Lil Wayne to play the show?
CARMICHAEL: Including Lil Wayne, right? He's on record saying he's been praying for this moment. Now, besides being Super Bowl 59's host city, New Orleans is also - it's one of hip-hop's bedrocks, you know? This is home of Master P's No Limit Records and Cash Money Records. So if anybody understands that, it's the man responsible for selecting the halftime show lineup for the last five years, and that's Jay-Z.
SUMMERS: Yeah, I mean, I think some people would be surprised to learn that Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation, has been in charge of the halftime show recently. What kind of impact has that had on what viewers see?
CARMICHAEL: It's had a huge impact. I mean, hip-hop has been the best-selling genre for seven years now. And Jay-Z's partnership with the NFL - it's allowed the league to really play catch-up with pop culture. I mean, he and Roc Nation have booked some of the biggest Black artists in the industry and the world in the last five years.
And even with the halftime show drawing the biggest television audience in America, the league has always played to Middle America's moral center. And for the longest time, they just really couldn't attract the cool kids anymore. I mean, you got to remember, just a few years ago, the NFL was in hot water. Some of the biggest stars in hip-hop and R&B, from Rihanna to Cardi B, to even Jay-Z himself, were turning down invitations to perform at the halftime show.
SUMMERS: Yeah, I remember that. Rodney, can you just remind us why it was that those artists were turning down the opportunity to play what's such a high-profile show with a huge audience?
CARMICHAEL: OK, so a big part of that was Colin Kaepernick - you remember - the 49ers quarterback who started protesting during the national anthem back in 2016 to bring attention to police brutality in the Black community. So Kaepernick experienced a lot of backlash from that, which put the NFL's relationship with Black America onto shaky ground. So they really needed to start bringing in the industry's hottest entertainers back to the table, and they needed to quiet the NFL's most vocal critics. And Roc Nation has effectively done that.
Not everybody's a huge fan of the partnership and how it polished the league's image, but it has resulted in a really huge cultural shift in terms of the artists headlining the halftime show, from Snoop and Dre, to Rihanna, to Usher this year.
SUMMERS: Right. And obviously, I mean, a lot of eyes are going to be on what happens at the game, but there is also just so much more than football riding on the Super Bowl.
CARMICHAEL: Yeah, I think it's going to be the ultimate test for Kendrick Lamar. I mean, hip-hop is fully invested, but he's got several crowds to please and more than a few balls to juggle at the same time. I mean, the detractors who don't want to see him lend any legitimacy to the NFL - that's one camp. Then there are the Lil Wayne fans who still think he deserves the spotlight in New Orleans, his hometown. But I really wouldn't want to bet against Kendrick right now with the winning streak that he's on. I feel like if anybody can figure out how to thread all these needles and win, it's Kendrick.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING KUNTA")
LAMAR: (Rapping) Where, where you when I was walking? Now I run the game, got the whole world talkin'. King Kunta, everybody want to...
CARMICHAEL: And I predict that he'll even surprise us by bringing out Lil Wayne - 'cause if anybody respects the culture of hip-hop, it's definitely Kendrick Lamar.
SUMMERS: That's NPR Music's Rodney Carmichael. Rodney, thanks so much.
CARMICHAEL: Thanks a lot for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING KUNTA")
LAMAR: (Rapping) Where, where you when I was walking? Now I run the game, got the whole world talking. King Kunta, everybody want to cut the legs off him. King Kunta, Black man taking no losses. Oh, yeah. Where, where you when I was walking? Now I run the game, got the whole world talkin'. King Kunta, everybody want to cut the legs off him. When you got the yams. What's the yams? The yam brought it out of Richard Pryor, manipulated Bill Clinton with desires - 24/7, 365 days times two. I was contemplating getting on stage just to go back to the hood, see my enemy and say - oh, yeah - where, where you when I was walking? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
