BY: DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF

 

The biggest sporting and television of the year, Super Bowl LIX aired live on Sunday night and featured a highly publicized halftime show performance by Kendrick Lamar.

 

Viewers around the country voiced their opinions in the wake of the polarizing performance, which featured cameos from the likes of Academy Honorary Award-winning actor Samuel L. Jackson and Grammy-winning R&B star SZA among others. Sean Ono Lennon – son of revered songwriter and founding member of The Beatles, John Lennon – was among those who publicly praised the decision to feature Lamar as the halftime show performer for the event.

 

“I never thought I’d see an artist like Kendrick at the Super Bowl,” said Lennon via the social media platform, X. “It’s cool to see.”

 

 

While many viewers were quick to give their input regarding the ongoing drama surrounding Lamar as a result of the rapper’s highly publicized feud with with habitual hip-hop/R&B chart-topper Drake, Lennon instead made note of the artistic path of Lamar and the contrast of the approach with the commercial gravitas of what is considered to be one of the biggest performance gigs in music.

 

”I don’t think Kendrick’s music was ever made with the Super Bowl in mind. It’s not about that kind of thing,” Lennon continued in a follow-up post. “So I think to hear him for the first time in this context is probably not the most flattering introduction.”

 

The musician and activist would conclude his statements with a declaration that Lamar was one of the greatest, asserting that those who have followed the artist throughout his career would be particularly privy to significance of his mainstream ascension over the past decade.

 

“But if you’re a fan then you know,” he concluded. “This man is one of the greatest of all time and if you know you know.”

 

 

Lamar’s performance broke up the halves in a face-off between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, a match-up of which has been a decidedly one-sided contest up to the time of writing.

 

The 22-time Grammy Award-winner performed a dozen songs as part of the Super Bowl LIX Half Time show, many of which appeared as part of his most recent full-length project GNX, released in November of 2024. Just some tracks from the rapper’s back-catalogue to be featured as part of the performance were “Humble,” “DNA,” “Euphoria,” and the immensely popular single, “Not Like Us.”

 

Sean Ono Lennon also occupied the Grammy stage last week, accepting the Grammy award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for his work on The Ultimate Collection Super Deluxe Box Set of his father’s 1973 album Mind Games.

 

He would also accept the award for Best Rock Performance for the recently released Beatles track “Now and Then” on behalf of his father.

 

”Play The Beatles music to your kids,” said the songwriter while accepting the award. “I feel like the world can’t afford to forget about people like The Beatles.” 

 

Posts shared courtesy of X; Sean Ono Lennon photo used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.