Kid Rock has offered up his blunt assessment of Kendrick Lamar’s divisive halftime performance during this year’s Super Bowl telling Bill Maher he laughed his “ass off.”
“I mean, to put it nicely, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I gotta respect it,” the Rock said during an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher. “Here’s why: You know, I grew up loving, emulating hip-hop. All things hip-hop. Breakdancing, DJ-ing, graffiti, rapping. And so I understand the culture a little bit more than most … And when I say ‘most,’ of course, I mean White people.”
Rock praised Lamar for coming out “figuratively with both middle fingers in the air, doing what he does for the people who love what he does, unapologetically.”
“I don’t think he gives a frog’s fat ass what anyone thinks about it,” he said. “That’s pretty much how I built my whole career. I gotta respect it.”
But despite taking home five Grammys for Not Like Us, his scathing diss track aimed at fellow rapper Drake, Rock also wondered aloud how Jay-Z, who produces the halftime show, tapped Lamar to perform at the event.
“I’ve heard nobody answer this question: How did he get there?” Rock asked. “How did he get that gig? Jay-Z. What happened there?”
Rock went on to call the show the “epitome of DEI.”
“This was the epitome of DEI blowing up. Because the NFL was on this DEI, ‘end racism,’ all this stuff. They got Jay-Z. They’re bookin’ this. Kendrick Lamar goes out there and basically turns DEI into an IED,” he said. “It’s like, it’s all Black people, or all people of colour, speaking to his crowd, in the hood, Black people. It was like the most … exclusive thing ever, and I’m like, ‘F— yeah, that’s awesome.’ I’m laughing my ass off.”
Rock, who made a cameo during 2004’s halftime show alongside Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, also suggested that both Jay-Z and Lamar owe a debt of gratitude to former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for opening the door for them to be a part of the premiere NFL event.
“I think Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar should both send Colin Kaepernick a Bundt cake and a six-pack of beer and a ‘thank you’ note with a bunch of money in it, because without him kneeling and getting everyone’s panties in a bunch over the anthem, self-included, I don’t think that happens,” he said.
In the hours afterwards, Lamar’s production divided the Internet with Barstool Sports calling it “horrendous.”
“I genuinely can’t tell if I’m being biased against Kendrick but I think this is the worst halftime show I’ve seen in a minute,” one watcher wrote on X.
“This halftime show at The Super Bowl by Kendrick Lamar is hot garbage… Worst of all time…,” another viewer declared.
But despite some criticism, this year’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show was a ratings juggernaut. Powered by his beef with Drake, Roc Nation said 133.5 million viewers tuned in for Lamar’s performance, making it the most-watched of all time.
For his part, Drake, who is on tour in Australia had little to say about the show. But on his latest track, Gimme a Hug, off his new collaborative album $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U with PartyNextDoor, the Toronto rapper alluded to feud, rapping, “They be droppin’ s—, but we be droppin’ harder s—/ F— a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit.”
Elsewhere, sports commentator Skip Bayless claimed the NFL might have realized it made a mistake in hiring Lamar, saying on his YouTube show that the league apologized to football enthusiast Lil Wayne for not tapping him for the gig in his hometown.
“The NFL immediately sent Wayne a letter of apology. From nobody in particular, just from the league on NFL letterhead,” Bayless said.
According to The U.S. Sun, the NFL has now admitted that choosing Kendrick instead of Lil Wayne was a “mistake.”
“Lil Wayne should have been the first option, as he is from New Orleans and we know that there was a clear motivation for him and his side to do a unique show in his town,” an insider told the outlet. “Lil Wayne was the obvious choice, and the choice made wasn’t the best one at all.”