Author: djfrosty

Kendrick Lamar is absolutely everywhere on the Billboard charts this week, following his explosive performance at halftime of Super Bowl LIX — the most-watched halftime show in history, according to the NFL and presenter Apple Music, with 133.5 million viewers.

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On the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Feb. 22), Lamar owns five of the top 10 songs, including four of the top five and the entire top three. Leading the pack is his already-minted classic “Not Like Us,” which returns to No. 1 for the first time since July 2024 and third week total. Meanwhile, on the Billboard 200, Lamar notches three of the top 10 albums — the first rapper to ever have three simultaneous entries in the region — also including the No. 1 spot, held by his late-2024 blockbuster GNX, in its second week on top.

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What do we make of the extent of Lamar’s chart dominance? And how much longer can he keep up this commercial run? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. The week after his Super Bowl halftime performance, Kendrick Lamar commands five of the top 10 spots on the Hot 100 — including four of the top five and the entire top three — while also notching three albums in the Billboard 200’s top 10, and returning to the top of both the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 with “Not Like Us” and GNX, respectively. On a scale from 1-10, how insane do you find Kendrick’s level of post-Super Bowl dominance to be?

Eric Renner Brown: 7. I’m not shocked that Kendrick’s Super Bowl halftime show has boosted his streaming numbers. But I am surprised by the degree to which it has boosted them, following what’s been a very strong 12-month period for the rapper. It’s wild to me that, despite forgoing the typical “greatest hits” format for a Super Bowl halftime show and focusing on GNX material, Kendrick’s performance still lifted two of his old albums into the Billboard 200’s top 10.

Kyle Denis: 10. Mostly because I simply did not see any of this coming by the time we wrapped the Mr. Morale era in late 2023. I always knew Kendrick was capable of outright dominating a year; it just felt like he was content already having done so with Damn. and the Black Panther soundtrack during 2017-18. While the GNX boosts are dope to see, I’m less impressed by them considering most of the album has lived in the uppermost reaches of the Hot 100 since its surprise release last November. I’m far more impressed by good kid, m.A.A.d city – which saw none of its songs performed during halftime – re-entering the top 10 of the Billboard 200 (No. 10). Or better yet, his Jay Rock-assisted “Money Trees” — a good kid deep cut that was also passed over for the halftime setlist – finally debuting at No. 11 on Rap Streaming Songs over 12 years after its release. 

Angel Diaz: I’m not a big numbers guy, but this seems like a big deal, so I’ll give it a 10. It’s refreshing to see those type of rap singles being at the top of the charts in place of some of the generic party records that we’re used to seeing dominate.

Jason Lipshutz: An 8. Two points off because most of the Kendrick songs currently in the top 10 were already relatively huge prior to the halftime boost… but still, this is pretty much best-case scenario for how a Super Bowl performance can result in chart dominance. The fact that two of his pre-GNX albums return to the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week demonstrates the depth to which viewers are returning to his back catalog as well, making the Super Bowl showcase both a boon to the new songs he performed as well as motivation to discover older songs he did not.

Andrew Unterberger: Tempted to say 10, just because the specifics continue to be mind-boggling for me, but Kendrick was already on such a heater pre-Super Bowl that it probably can’t be higher than a 9. Still, c’mon — how wild is this s–t??

2. We’ve never seen an artist experience a post-Super Bowl chart bump on this level before — if you had to choose one, do you think this unprecedented boost is more about Kendrick’s performance, his overall timeliness as an artist, or interest over his ongoing feud with Drake?

Eric Renner Brown: Granted, Drake is posting some gaudy numbers of his own with the Valentine’s Day debut of his PartyNextDoor collab $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, which one could attribute to interest in Drake’s first post-“Not Like Us” project – or just evidence of his ongoing pop hegemony. But I’m inclined to attribute this to Kendrick’s overall timeliness as an artist. Kendrick fans in my life enjoyed, but weren’t necessarily stunned, by his Super Bowl performance — and based on some of the media reactions, I’m not sure it roped in that many new fans for him; if anything, it felt tailored to Kendrick heads, what with its GNX deep cuts and high-concept structure. Of course, Kendrick’s delivery of the “Say Drake…” line became the halftime show’s most-memed moment – but, to me, if interest in the Drake feud was the primary driver of a bump for Kendrick, we wouldn’t be seeing such strong numbers for GNX and the rest of Kendrick’s catalog.

Kyle Denis: These options are definitely largely inextricable from one another, but I think Kendrick’s overall timeliness is most unprecedented, because things rarely line up this perfectly. We have literally never seen a rapper – especially one chiefly concerned with hip-hop’ s ethos than pop crossover ploys – have the kind of reach, catalog and ability to dominate the Super Bowl and the Grammys, win a generation-defining rap beef, he Grammys and earn peerless honors like the Pulitzer Prize for Music. And he’s got a major synch in the new Captain America movie, alongside a rapidly approaching join tour with SZA – the first hip-hop trek to exclusively play stadiums. 

I think the fact that his back catalog got such a notable boost despite being largely ignored during his performance means that his halftime set won him the curiosity of hundreds of thousands of new listeners. I also think the fact the “Luther” is the highest-charting GNX track post-Super Bowl might mean that the Drake feud is no longer a primary reason people are tuning into K.Dot’s music right now. “Luther” is very clearly not about the beef, just like the vast majority of GNX, people are just really connecting with his music even outside of the Drake of it all, which speaks to intensity of Kendrick’s overall timeliness at the moment. 

Angel Diaz: Sorry, but the only is answer is all of the above. George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg would call a situation like this the perfect storm. Kendrick by himself is capable of a No. 1 album and No. 1 single, but the Drake blowout, getting the Super Bowl, and taking advantage of the situation by dropping a surprise album that harkens back to his Section.80 and good kid, m.A.A.d city days helped his profile explode this past year. There are only a handful of rappers that have had a crazier run. Future and 50 Cent are the two that come to mind off the top of my head.

Jason Lipshutz: His overall timeliness. Yes, “Not Like Us” is still enormous as Drake-piñata fodder, and the best songs on GNX received the halftime showcase they deserved — yet Kendrick Lamar is currently bigger than any 12-minute moment, as a zeitgeist-capturing phenom whose greatness defined popular music in 2024. Some of the songs and albums that he didn’t even touch during the halftime show still made their way into the top 10 of the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, respectively, which shows that the general hunger for Lamar’s music transcends the Super Bowl or any feud.

Andrew Unterberger: I’ll say the Drake feud, because I still believe the level of interest in this specific performance — both going into it and coming out of it — was first and foremost tied to the question of whether or not he was going to play “Not Like Us.” But there’s no question that Kendrick’s 2024-25 boost in popularity and overall impact will outlive this beef, and I think he picked up far more new fans than we most of us probably realize with this performance, fans who might not have cared and may never care about this particular drama.

3. Outside of what’s going on with the charts — is there a more anecdotal example you’ve seen or experienced that demonstrates how much Kendrick Lamar has lorded over culture and conversation in the last week or so? (Either a real-life/online interaction you’ve had or something you’ve seen in the larger culture that’s not charts-related.) 

Eric Renner Brown: My dad – an eclectic, voracious listener who has listened periodically to Kendrick dating back to good kid – reached out to me two days after the Super Bowl with a link to “Not Like Us” and the note “I like this!” He asked me to explain the Drake feud to him. The next day, he sent links to “squabble up” (“And this!”) and “reincarnated” (“This is quite good!”). Kendrick hasn’t felt underground for more than a decade, but with this Super Bowl halftime show, it really feels like he’s entered the mainstream and achieved a new level of stardom.

Kyle Denis: I mention this on an upcoming Greatest Pop Stars podcast episode, but Valentine’s Day Weekend surprised me! After dinner on Friday night (Feb. 14), my Valentine and I went to an R&B night at a club in Times Square. Of course, I expected to hear something from $ome $exy $ongs 4 U since it literally came out that day – or at least some older tracks from either Drizzy or Party. Instead, the DJ didn’t play a single song from either artist yet found a way to squeeze in a GNX medley of “TV Off” and “Peekaboo,” with “Luther” appearing later in the night. Needless to say, the venue went crazy everything the Compton Kid blared through the speakers. 

Angel Diaz: His interview Timmy Tim, a.k.a. Timothée Chalamet, for the Super Bowl. They seem to be the chosen ones in their respective fields right now, and they’ve been able to tap into that pop culture zeitgeist to where your parents know who they are. There were white grandmothers bouncing around to Kendrick’s halftime performance on social media, while Chalamet has managed to enter the sports realm by exposing his Knicks fandom, and was the fifth non-singer to host and perform on SNL in the show’s 50-year history. 

Jason Lipshutz: It’s been 10 days since the Super Bowl halftime show, and we are still talking about it — online, in real life, with friends and colleagues and family relatives picking my brain on how Kendrick did and What It All Meant. That’s an anomaly for Super Bowl halftime discourse, which typically has a shelf life of a day or two, no matter how huge the headliner might be. Not everybody loved Lamar’s halftime show, but there’s no denying its standing as a cultural lightning rod with a long tail of listenership — exactly what the NFL, and Kendrick himself, must have wanted.

Andrew Unterberger: I look at the SNL 50th Anniversary Homecoming Concert from Friday, where Kendrick was not present, but still got multiple center-stage moments — including yet another “A-minorrrrrr” singalong moment for a huge crowd of famous people with millions more watching from home. When you loom large over every major event even when you’re not there, that’s when you’ve really got the juice like no one else.

4. While “Not Like Us” resumes the top spot this week, “Luther” (with SZA) also hits a new peak of No. 2, and should threaten for pole position next week. Why do you think that song has emerged as the enduring popular favorite from GNX, and did the Super Bowl performance help cement that status? 

Eric Renner Brown: I’m not so quick to label “Luther” the enduring popular favorite off GNX! One of the popular favorites? Sure. But “Peekaboo” has achieved TikTok virality with its “Bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-bam/ The type of shit I’m on, you wouldn’t understand” line, while “Squabble Up” is a No. 1 hit with a memorable music video, and the “MUSTAAAAARD!” line in “TV Off” is already iconic enough to work without context in a Heinz ad. “luther” is also great, buoyed as it may be by SZA’s presence – and their collaboration at the halftime show certainly fortified its numbers. But ultimately, GNX is stacked with some of the most accessible, enjoyable music of Kendrick’s career. These songs and more will all pop off when he and SZA hit the stadium circuit in a couple months.

Kyle Denis: In December, I predicted “Luther” to be the most enduring GNX track and I’m standing by that. It’s the song on GNX with the widest appeal, it’s the best new SZA song we’ve gotten since she started expanding SOS, and its cozy loved-up balladry is perfect for the winter. I don’t think “Luther” was even in the top three most memorable music moments from the halftime show, but I think its slot there combined with forthcoming sure-to-be viral tour performances will help further cement the song’s legacy. 

Angel Diaz: The song is just so damn catchy and fun for the whole family. I’ve seen videos of toddlers singing along to it. There’s also the Luther Vandross sample, and who doesn’t love Luther?

Jason Lipshutz: “Squabble Up” and “TV Off” are flashier rap singles, but “Luther” locates the midway point between two superstars: the chemistry between Kendrick Lamar and SZA crackles phenomenally on the track, their tones circling the Luther Vandross (and Cheryl Lynn) sample and bouncing off the subtly deployed strings in a way that pop, R&B and hip-hop fans can appreciate in equal measure. A Super Bowl performance is always going help matters commercially, but “Luther” was likely going to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 at some point regardless; next week might finally be that point.

Andrew Unterberger: It’s just the most generally agreeable song on the album for casual listeners, and probably the most playlistable as well. I don’t think the Super Bowl performance added a ton to the song, except for giving it the same boost it’s given the rest of his catalog.

5. It’s been almost a year since this Kendrick run first kicked off with “Like That” last March. What do you think is more likely — that his dominance will start to slow down soon, or that it’ll still feel this pervasive when we’re getting into year-end season? 

Eric Renner Brown: Kendrick will only continue to feel dominant as he hits the road with SZA for his first stadium tour – he has a mass appeal right now that he simply hasn’t had in the past. But the wild card is how much he wants that. Prior to 2024, Kendrick – who I believed throughout the ’10s could’ve been a Drake-level hitmaker, if he’d wanted to pursue that direction instead of the knottier, more complex music that earned him a Pulitzer – has evaded the spotlight, taking breaks when he gained momentum and eschewing more commercial plays. With GNX, the Super Bowl halftime show, and now his stadium tour, he doesn’t seem to be currently in that headspace. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Kyle Denis: It will be very hard for Kendrick’s dominance to feel pervasive because he is not a very present, forward-facing star. “Not Like Us” has officially been No. 1 for more weeks than the number of times Kendrick has given televised live performances of the song. He’s not someone that’s constantly on social media posting to his finsta and linking with Twitch streamers. He drops music, performs, gives one or two (probably contractually obligated) interviews and goes home. 

Kendrick also isn’t one to flood the market with music; it’s not likely he keeps pumping out new content, so as consumers, we’re not likely to feel inundated or overwhelmed by how present he is in the marketplace. Now, if the Grand National tour ends up becoming a cultural phenomenon like the Renaissance World Tour or Eras Tour, we might have to revisit this conversation. 

Angel Diaz: I think that totally depends on Drake. If he continues with his antics: the lawsuits, the memes, the trolling. Then maybe Dot will take his foot off his neck, but until then, I fear the boogeyman isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. His stadium tour is kicking off at the end of April, and you gotta think he has something else up his sleeve — like maybe a verse on the new Clipse album (allegedly/rumored innuendo.) I would put money on the onslaught continuing. I think that would be a pretty safe bet.

Jason Lipshutz: The latter. GNX has more singles to spin off, and Lamar has been re-energized as a recording artist during this run, to the point where the five-year gap between DAMN. and Mr. Morale now feels out of the question. We’ve got a summer stadium tour alongside SZA coming up, GNX will be eligible at the 2026 Grammys, and whatever Kendrick decides to release in between — his ubiquity is not lagging anytime soon.

Andrew Unterberger: Yeah, it might not be an every week thing — though it also might be an every week thing — but the level that Kendrick is at right now I think means that he’s going to continue to make waves (and headlines) almost by default for pretty much the rest of the year, regardless of whether or not he releases any more music. And honestly, if I had to bet, I would say he probably does release some more music; he seems to realize what a special run it is that he’s on right now, and I would bet he’s got at least a little more to say while he’s still in this bright a spotlight.