Sunday's announcement is the capstone of a year that saw K. Dot rise to the pinnacle of pop culture—and Drake sink to the lowest point of his career
You can imagine Drake doing this at first. Aubrey Graham is practically built for the Super Bowl halftime show. His live shows have always felt closer to Vegas, and his catalog is large, varied, exciting, and mostly innocent. Compare his popularity—76 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone—and Drake seems to be everything the NFL wants for the second Sunday in February.
He was never one to be modest, and Drake himself seems to believe this. In last year’s “First Person Shooter,” he built an orchestra around the idea that his isolation was as big as the Super Bowl. Sure, the line was a little sighable (isn't that lyric a lot?), but the idea of Drake taking Apple-sponsored center stage in October 2023 didn't seem so far-fetched
Well, we can safely add the Super Bowl shout out to Drake’s long list of regrets on “First Person Shooter”. On Sunday, his nemesis—the reigning prince of the music industry and the mayor of Parma in Los Angeles—Kendrick Lamar, announced in his usually cryptic way that he would headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. It’s the capstone of a year that saw Kendrick ascend to the pinnacle of pop culture. It’s also the last bit of dirt in Drake’s coffin.
To recap, even if you’re locked in the same bunker as Jim Downey: after years of cold hip-hop wars between Drake and Kendrick, “first-person shooters ” the petty tantrums—where Drake and his pal Jay have the audacity to suggest'. re in the same class as Kendrick -He unleashed a nuclear attack from all sides.
The first was Kendrick’s collaboration with Future and Metro Boomin on “Like That”—which, despite K.Dot’s promise to bury Drake, now feels like gentle ribbing. But after Drake responded, Kendrick broke out the big guns: “Euphoria,” a seven-minute gasp of Drake’s personality. “Meet the Grahams” is Drake’s open letter to his son, his mother, and the rapper himself that reads more like an indictment of Rico than a war rap. And, of course, maybe not just “like us”. 1 song in Billboard history built around calling someone a pedophile. It was the song of the summer in every sensible way (sorry, “Espresso”; sorry, Chappelle and Charlie) and immediately one of the best diss songs ever recorded
On June 10, Kendrick traveled to L.A. go dancing on Drake's grave at Pop-Out. On a sold-out stage in Inglewood—while watched by millions on Amazon and followed on Twitter—Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” five times, pausing occasionally for the crowd to chant “A-1. minor”. -can extend the strings for what looks like forever . If that wasn’t embarrassing enough for the crooning Canadian, Kendrick also brought out Raptors legend DeMar DeRozan to help celebrate. One can picture Drake watching and smashing a glass bowl on the marble floor of his North York mansion as OVO Fred runs for the broom.
The pop-out felt like the ultimate victory for an artist who surprisingly defeated his opponent. But now we are almost certain that there is at least one more race on an even bigger stage. At the Superdome in February, Kendrick will likely play a set that either soars or ends with “Not Like Us”. While we don’t know how he’ll handle some of the spicier songs (it’s hard to imagine censors loving the “69 God” outro), we can only assume that more than 100 million people will tune in to see another Drake funeral. The big question is L.A. which football legend would bring in DeSean Jackson? Tyrone Smith is it? Ronnie Lott is it?
The effect of this controversy on K.Dot’s career cannot be overstated. No one ever doubted his artistic or commercial potential. (A Drake line that actually dropped during the beef: “Kendrick just opened his mouth, whoever's going to give him a Grammy.”) But despite Kendrick's millions of springs and punches, Kendrick ate Always a step or two behind Drake For sale. (For reference, Kendrick has 25 platinum-certified songs. Drake has 80 and Taylor Swift has another 31.) And Kendrick loves it—he was so great that he guested with the band on Interscope/2017. Death Row halftime show in 2022— however. Just putting one of these in particular sounds like a backpack rap fan’s fever dream.
Of course, this was good; Drake was after Elvis and the Beatles, while Kendrick was after Tupac and Eckhart Tolle. Both rappers had their ways and they were clearly defined. But beef in general—and “not like us” in particular—has bridged that gap, if not completely eradicated it. As of Sunday, Kendrick had 68 million monthly listeners on Spotify—The Ringer's parent company—well below Drake's 76 million.Four months after its release, "Not Like Us" has shown great staying power revealed. (It was No. 12 on Spotify’s daily U.S. chart on Sunday, while “Like That” sneaked back to No. 50. Drake, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.)
Now, Kendrick is making one of the most unlikely Super Bowl titles we've ever had. He was the first solo hip-hop artist to earn the prestigious spot and only fourth overall, after the aforementioned Dre-Snoop-Eminem old-timers gig, at the damn 2004 show ( where Diddy and Nelly share top billing with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake and is the coach ). , and black-eyed peas in 2011 (which, in all fairness, only qualify for this short list on a technology basis). He's also one of the most important contemporary artists to ever take this stage: after the Weeknd in 2021, headliners have had pop dramas in the last decade (Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake ) or legacy artists (Usher, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna-well, let's never be frank; Kendrick was the most interesting option on the board. After that year, the he too is most reasonable.
Meanwhile for Drake, Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance announcement feels like another low point in his poor, absolutely bad year. His back list is enough to keep him rich for life, but in recent months his efforts to regain his footing have fallen apart. His 100GB “Data Dump” and the resulting three new singles were largely ignored, as was his collaboration with fellow pop pariah Camila Cabello when he bowed out of beef with the disastrous “The Heart Part 6”. after the 19th century. That’s what we expected. The greatest artist of his generation is gone, an opponent he was aching to face but was still completely unprepared for has been discarded unscathed.
Somehow, Drake has become everything the NFL doesn’t want hidden under its brightest spotlight, a notion that seemed unimaginable 11 months ago. Maybe now is the time to acknowledge this: Despite the success, accolades, and catalog that seem destined to one day shape the Super Bowl, doesn’t it seem now that Drake is more removed from that status than time any?
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