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Serena Williams finally addressed all the chatter surrounding her appearance at the Super Bowl Halftime show during Kendrick Lamar’s performance, and people were definitely talking. Kendrick and Drake’s rap beef is well-known, and Serena’s been linked to Drake as “the one that got away.” So, having Serena show up during Kendrick’s set?
You already know that got the rumors flying. Some thought Serena was low-key throwing shade at Drake, making the whole situation sweeter for Kendrick.
The LA native wasn’t here for any of that. She hopped on social media to shut it down, saying, “Gosh I’m so late to the game (I’ve been sick) & busy investing in billion-dollar companies and running @WYNbeauty … def not dancing to be petty lol.” She made it clear that her presence wasn’t about stirring the pot. Serena was just enjoying the show while focusing on her own business moves and life.
With that, Serena ended all the speculation. No petty drama, just a queen doing her thing. She reminded us that she’s focused on winning in life, whether it’s on the court, in business, or just vibing at the Super Bowl. Serena’s clapback was a reminder that she’s too busy winning to get caught up in petty drama. She’s on a whole different level—focused on building her empire, whether it’s on the court, in business, or with WYN Beauty.
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From Sarah McLachlan and Van Halen, to Blackpink (featuring Selena Gomez), musicians have sung about the joys of ice cream for decades. Now there’s something new to sing about with the launch of the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi Ice Cream Maker.
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The latest product to go viral from the kitchen appliance brand, Ninja’s newest innovation gets you an at-home ice cream maker that can make both scooped ice cream and soft serve, in addition to dozens of other offerings.
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NEW RELEASE
Ninja Swirl by CREAMi Ice Cream and Soft Serve Maker
$349.99
$349.99
Similar to the original Ninja CREAMi, which went viral over the pandemic as people made their own ice cream at home, the new Ninja Swirl lets you mix and match your own flavors and ingredients to create hard ice cream, frozen custard, frozen yogurt, sorbets, milkshakes and more.
But the Ninja Swirl takes it one step further, with the ability to make soft serve ice cream, with all the smooth and creamy goodness you remember as a kid. The soft serve is then dispensed straight from the machine, with the soda shop-style pull handle. As the name connotes, the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi dispenses your ice cream in a nostalgic swirl design, perfect for cones and cups alike.
The new ice cream maker has 13 one-touch programs in total, giving you frozen treats with the push of a button. Ninja says this is six additional programs and options compared to the older Ninja CREAMi model.
The Ninja Swirl has quickly gone viral on social media, with creators showing the versatility of the ice cream maker to make things like protein shakes and vegan treats as well. Simply fill the included pint with your preferred type of milk, ingredients and flavoring, and then pop it in the freezer for a few hours. Once it’s hardened, stick it back into the machine to let it churn.
This Amazon deal gets you the Ninja Swirl Ice Cream Maker, two 16 oz. pints, lids, paddle, swirl press and recipe book. An Amazon bestseller, get it while it’s still in stock here. Ninja products often sell out so we recommend adding to cart while the Swirl by CREAMi is still available.
ORIGINAL RELEASE
Ninja CREAMi Deluxe Ice Cream & Frozen Treat Maker
$228.72
$249.99
9% off
Prefer the original Ninja CREAMi? The popular ice cream maker is on sale for $228 on Amazon here.
A$AP Rocky has been found not guilty in his 2021 felony shooting case, and the rapper expressed his gratitude with Rihanna. Keep watching for the full story. What do you think of A$AP’s reaction with Rihanna? Let us know in the comments. Tetris Kelly: A$AP Rocky is not guilty. The rapper’s trial is over and […]
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna are going above and beyond a simple thank-you note to show their gratitude to Joe Tacopina — the lawyer who successfully led the rapper to a not guilty verdict in his felony shooting trial Tuesday (Feb. 19) — and it has to do with Baby No. 3.
In a video interview with Extra posted one day after the three-week legal proceedings wrapped up in Los Angeles, the attorney revealed that the couple jokingly promised to name their next child after him in celebration of their victory. “Rihanna and Rocky said to me in the courtroom yesterday, they grabbed me and they said, ‘Listen, our next baby is A$AP Joe,’” Tacopina told the outlet, smiling.
In theory, little A$AP Joe Mayers would join older brothers RZA, 2, and Riot, 1 — and Rocky and Rih have every reason to want to honor Tacopina. The Harlem native had been facing up to 24 years in prison over a November 2021 incident in which he’d been accused of firing a gun twice at former friend A$AP Relli, for which he was hit with two felony counts of assault with a firearm.
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But as seen by everyone in the court — and countless fans watching along — Rocky proved to be victorious in his fight against both counts, which he celebrated as soon as his not guilty verdict was read out by sprinting away from the defendant’s stand, jumping straight over a courtroom railing, and wrapping the Fenty mogul in a big hug. “THE GLORY BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD ALONE! THANKFUL, HUMBLED BY HIS MERCY!” Rihanna wrote on Instagram Stories shortly afterward.
Recalling the passionate moment from his POV, Tacopina told Extra, “I look to my right, he’s gone … he was just gone,” the lawyer said, laughing. “I said to my partner, ‘Did he leave?’ … And I see him on top of Rihanna… I couldn’t process quickly enough.”
Tacopina — whom Rocky also christened “A$AP Joe” outside the courthouse after the ruling — went on to share how close he and the two stars have gotten since they started working together on the case. He was even on hand to babysit RZA in 2023 back when Rih was preparing for her Super Bowl halftime show performance.
“All of a sudden, Rocky said, ‘Can you just take care of a baby? I’m getting a pedicure,’” Tacopina recalled. “There was a different type of relationship with him than with most clients.”
Watch Tacopina break down Rocky’s court win below.
Opening less than two weeks ago, Becoming Led Zeppelin is already nearing $6 million in international box office gross. In an era where most documentaries head straight to streaming, the rock doc’s box office run – not the mention the fact that it’s playing on IMAX screens – is a small coup. “I must say that feedback from fans is just humbling and inspiring,” lead guitarist Jimmy Page wrote on social media.
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It’s also a source of great pride for co-directors Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty, who were told the film wouldn’t make four bucks by one skeptical studio. According to MacMahon and McGourty, all the major studios except Song Pictures Classics passed on Becoming Led Zeppelin. That’s more than a bit surprising given the legendary band’s cross-generational popularity and the fact that the directors scored extensive interviews with the band’s elusive surviving members. But it’s fitting, too – it wouldn’t be the first time Led Zeppelin faced indifferent (or outright hostile) critics and proved them wrong.
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While Zep’s career spans nine albums and 12 years, effectively ending when drummer John Bonham died in 1980, this film focuses on the band’s early days, using interviews, rare archival footage and an unbeatable soundtrack (just try to resist headbanging in the theater) to tell the story of how four British boys from divergent backgrounds created an alchemic mixture of blues, hard rock, R&B and folk that changed the way rock bands played, recorded and toured.
Billboard sat down with co-directors MacMahon and McGourty to learn how they locked in interviews with Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, why the film stops after Led Zeppelin II and how some of the band’s contemporaries reacted to screenings of the movie.
You both worked together on American Epic, a wildly impressive and comprehensive 2017 documentary about the first recordings of blues, country and folk music in the United States. Did that help you land the surviving members of Led Zeppelin for this documentary? That series is very much their kind of music. Bernard MacMahon: It’s the fundamental reason why this film exists. Allison McGourty: There wouldn’t be Becoming Led Zeppelin without American Epic. MacMahon: Allison had this idea to do American Epic and tell the story of the first blues, gospel, country and Cajun records made in America and the 1920s and ‘30s. So she got a filmmaker friend of hers, Geoff Wonfor, who had done The Beatles Anthology films, to meet with me to persuade me this was a good idea for a movie. We made it under Allison’s leadership, and afterward, I came to her and said, “You know what would be a great follow-up film? When I was 12 years old, I read this little paperback book about Led Zeppelin. It’s long out of print, it was published in the ‘70s, and it’s the early story and it contains all this information that has been lost. It’s not part of the Led Zeppelin lexicon, it’s been replaced by all these tabloid books in the ‘80s written by a bloke who went on tour with them for a week.” This book was by a guy, Howard Mylett, who really had access to them. I read it when I was 12 and I found it inspirational, these four kids from different parts of Britain trying to make their way in music. McGourty: That was unusual. Two were from London, two were from the West Midlands. Normally that would never happen: The Rolling Stones were all from London, the Beatles were all from Liverpool. It’s hard for people from the West Midlands to break into the music scene so it was a bit of a miracle they got together at all. And their own back stories are entirely different. Jimmy Page had the support of his mom; John Paul Jones came from a showbiz family, his mom and dad were vaudeville performances; John Bonham, his parents didn’t mind what he did as long as he looked after his family; and Robert Plant got thrown out because he wouldn’t become an accountant. He became homeless. The part of the film where he talks about being homeless is pretty emotional. And then of course when they did get together, it was still an uphill battle. MacMahon: Peter Grant couldn’t get them a record deal in the U.K. No one got [their music]. People wouldn’t book the band. They had to go to America and did it on their own terms. Vanilla Fudge were the only group that took them under their wing and supported them. How did you manage to land Page, Plant and Jones for sit-down, on-camera interviews about Led Zeppelin? That’s rare.MacMahon: We had done months and months of preparations, including tracking down every interview of John Bonham. A couple people who knew what we were doing said we were absolutely mad (since the band) had said no to every film. But we believed and carried on doing the work. This is a message to the readers: work hard and follow your dreams. There’s nothing special about me – I’m not Francis Ford Coppola’s son, I’m not sitting with a pile of Academy Awards, but we did do this movie, American Epic, that we worked really hard on for 10 years, and we did not take short cuts. That meant when we got to (the band) and they happened to have seen (American Epic), they knew there were no short cuts in that movie — no stone was unturned — and they thought, “Well, they’re gonna apply that to us.” Which we did. It was a five-hour meeting with John Paul Jones, something similar with Robert Plant and Pat Bonham and a seven-hour meeting with Jimmy Page. There’s a lot of stuff about their pre-Zeppelin days in the film that I bet a lot of fans didn’t know. MacMahon: I remember, I said to (Page), “This is the point where you see Robert singing for the first time.” He goes, “What was the name of the group?” “Obs-Tweedle.” He was testing you?MacMahon: Yeah! When we got to the end he said, “This is a great film and we’d be honored to have you make it.” He gave us artistic freedom. They let us make the movie, they did not edit the film. That never happens. (With most) successful groups, they control everything. McGourty: They did come in with additional photographs and recordings that had never been released before. MacMahon: Stuff we’d never seen before. After intending to never do it, when they did agree to do it — and we were honored — they turned up full throttle, in the way Led Zeppelin does on stage. They came with bags of stuff. They came intending to be candid and honest. It’s so emotional watching them is because the additional material made it more emotional. When John Paul Jones is talking about this priest who said, “You can be organist and choir master” to him at 14 years old, I’d been showing him pictures of that church. That church was bulldozed two years after he was there. It’s completely lost to time. So he’s looking at this and remembering this wonderful guy, so the emotions are fresh. You talk about how Led Zeppelin owned the recordings of their first album in the film. They were pretty savvy about their publishing as well. Was there anything about the band’s business strategies, or Grant’s business practices, that you learned in the interviews that didn’t make the film? MacMahon: I wanted to make a film that when I was 13, I would have seen in my local cinema and would want to watch three or four times. What we put in the film was what we thought was useful if you’re a kid starting out. There’s a point where you stop with the minutiae and go, “Maybe for a later day.” What we wanted to get across with big brushstrokes emotionally that would resonate with a kid was that these guys never sat on their hands. Whether they were struggling like Robert Plant and John Bonham in the Midlands, or part of the session music scene like Jimmy and Jonesy were, they were studying every single thing. Jimmy was coming in to do a session and he’s leaning over to see what the engineer is doing, as well as playing his part. And Robert was trying everything. Before Led Zeppelin he was singing with Alexis Korner, the father of the British blues scene. They were putting themselves out there and trying everything. And that’s the message. All the things (people are) being told they need to do now: TikTok, Instagram, you don’t need all that stuff. You just need two or three of you, and ideally as broad of tastes as possible to make it as colorful as possible, and then follow what your gut is telling you to do. But you gotta be out there and you gotta work and you gotta be studying. Let your response with the audience – even if it’s 10 people, then 15 people – inform what you’re doing. But don’t let those people tell you what to do. And that’s the message we as filmmakers found when we were getting to the rough cut. We brought it to every studio and every major studio apart from Sony Pictures Classics was like, “No one will ever watch this movie. Nobody will watch full Led Zeppelin songs in a cinema.”McGourty: Someone told us we wouldn’t get four dollars for this film. We carried on anyway. It paralleled (the story in the film). MacMahon: The Led Zeppelin story was a lesson to us as we were making this film. The film doesn’t get into any of the more salacious rumors about the band. Was that part of the feedback from studios — they wanted more scandal in the film? MacMahon: Some of that, yeah. They thought people would only sit and watch films about debauchery. McGourty: Led Zeppelin became the biggest band in the world because of their music. That’s what people love and what fans want to hear. MacMahon: This film allows you to hear the music in the purest way possible. This (movie features) the original lacquer cut done by Bob Ludwig in ’69. It’s a journey in sound — the exact sound it was meant to have. There’s no compression in the audio on this film. This is huge high peaks and troughs. It’s dynamics, which is what Led Zeppelin traded in. And that’s why audiences are responding to it – they’re getting the pure, high-quality stuff with no compression, no butchering. Were there any archival bits that were painful to cut?MacMahon: Nothing. McGourty: Peter Grant, if he caught someone filming at their gig, he would rip out the film, smash the camera, physically eject them. And they were not doing media. We’ve got every fragment known to exist. MacMahon: I just found out that some clip was (recently) discovered, but fortunately it was a song we already have a mind-boggling performance of in full-color and that (new one) was in black and white. The Beatles did insane amounts of publicity all the time, so there’s an endless supply of photo sessions and TV interviews. Zeppelin is the exact opposite. There’s so little. McGourty: In a way it made the film harder, since you have very little footage to work with, but it forced us to be creative. We’re very inspired by films of the Golden Era, Singin’ in the Rain, Frank Capra. We used lots of techniques from old movies like montage work. You see newspapers, contracts, tickets – we had over 6,000 artifacts digitized. (Everything you see in the film) is the real thing. MacMahon: We screened it for Bob Weir and Taj Mahal, who were kings of the counterculture in the Bay Area. They were there when Zeppelin broke through. Weir went over to me at the end of the film and said, “You know, this is game-changing stuff. Every kid should watch this to see this is what their grandparents did and how they did it. You know what I was thinking as I watched these guys? They reminded me of the John Coltrane trio with a singer. Or Pharoah Sanders with a singer.” That from Bob Weir, that tells you the level of musicianship he’s seeing. Taj Mahal saw it and said – McGourty: “That film re-arranged my molecules.”MacMahon: A guy who has been aware of this group for 55 years has his opinion expanded and changed from his preconceptions of the group.The film concludes after their second album, which I think is wise, as it allows you to really dig into their origin story instead of feeling beholden to tell the whole tale. Was that always the intention when you started this project?MacMahon: Yeah. In the story of Led Zeppelin, as in the story of anything that’s a great achievement, there’s a moment where you come from childhood with nothing, and you land on the moon or climb Everest. This is where the film ends – they’ve landed on the moon, they’re the biggest band on the planet and they finally have recognition in their home country. That is absolutely the conclusion of a two-hour cinematic film.
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Mufasa: The Lion King was one of the biggest movie of 2024. But, if you missed it in theaters, the prequel film is now available to stream at home.
Read on for the best way to stream Mufasa: The Lion King online.
How to Watch Mufasa: The Lion King Online
Mufasa: The Lion King is streaming for $24.99 to rent and $29.99 to buy digitally on Prime Video, Apple TV and other premium video on-demand marketplaces.
However, rentals are accessible for 30 days after purchase, and for 48 hours once you begin watching the movie.
Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), Mufasa: The Lion King is a prequel to the 2019 live-action version of The Lion King. It follows an orphaned cub named Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), who gets adopted into the royal family and becomes the brother of Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a young lion prince who later becomes Scar. The film then follows Mufasa’s journey to becoming the next king of the Pride Lands.
The movie also features a voice cast with Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Tiffany Boone, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and others.
Meanwhile, the soundtrack for Mufasa: The Lion King also features original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a film score by Dave Metzger.
Mufasa: The Lion King is to rent for $24.99, or buy digitally for $29.99 on Prime Video. In the meantime, you can watch a trailer for the movie below, or watch The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl featuring Jennifer Hudson, North West and other on Disney+.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Congratulations are in order for Cassie Ventura and husband Alex Fine, who are expecting their third child together. Ventura announced the news via Instagram, sharing a series of black-and-white family photos, with the “Me & U” singer dressed in jeans and a white button-down, her pregnant belly on display. In the snaps, she smiles alongside […]
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Feb. 19, adding another week to its record atop the chart.
The single was digitally released on April 12, 2024 and hit No. 1 for the first time on the chart dated July 17. This week, it rises a notch to rule the tally for the sixth time after hovering for three weeks in the top 3.
Streaming and downloads for the Oblivion Battery opener remain largely unchanged compared to the week before, while karaoke increased by 15%. The track hits No. 1 for streaming, video views, and karaoke, while coming in at No. 4 for downloads.
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The three-man band dominates the top two slots on the Japan Hot 100 this week, with “Darling” rising 3-2. Video for the track gained 10% and downloads 28% from last week.
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Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” climbs 5-3. The global hit is slowing down in most metrics except karaoke, which increased by 14%. The track comes in at No. 9 for downloads, No. 3 for streaming, No. 26 for radio airplay, No. 9 for video, and No. 24 for karaoke. The catchy pop-punk single has been charting for 16 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Global 200 and is at No. 3 on the chart dated Feb. 22.
BE:FIRST’s “Spacecraft” is at No. 4 after debuting atop the chart last week. The single sold 5,664 copies on the second week after its release and hit No. 9 for sales, No. 2 for video (down by 27%), and No. 18 for streaming (down by 24%).
Kenshi Yonezu’s “Plazma” slips to No. 5. The Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- theme song topped downloads for the first time in three weeks with figures down by 22% compared to the previous week, a smaller decrease than the 37% drop the week before.
Takanori Iwata’s “Phone Number,” the EXILE member’s first release after transferring to Universal Music, bowed at No. 11 on the Japan Hot 100 after launching with 51,209 CDs to top sales, while coming in at No. 46 for downloads.
In other news, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” makes its debut on the Japan Hot 100, coming in at No. 86. This is due to a surge in radio airplay after the single won five Grammys — including Song of the Year and Record of the Year — and was featured in the Compton rapper’s electrifying Super Bowl halftime show performance. The track is also back atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 29 weeks, logging its third week at No. 1.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Feb. 10 to 16, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
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.
On Saturday, Feb. 15, Billboard and EMPIRE came together at EMPIRE’s San Francisco studios to celebrate Billboard’s second annual Sports and Music issue, honoring some of the most powerful people operating at the intersection of the industries of sports and music. The issue, which features EMPIRE founder/CEO Ghazi on the cover, as well as a […]