Just when you thought Kendrick Lamar’s victory lap couldn’t get any crazier or longer, the start of the 2024–25 NFL season also came with the announcement that Kendrick will perform at the Super Bowl, which will be held in New Orleans next February. He did so in true Kendrick fashion: with no further comment than a bare YouTube link, which began with a clip artfully directed by his pgLang co-founder Dave Free. The visual shows Kendrick on a football field, standing in front of an American flag that takes up the entire frame while he goes through training drills with unseen players, before turning to the camera and imploring viewers to stop in February and watch him jump out.

Lamar elaborated a little more in a statement accompanying the announcement, saying, “Rap music remains the most influential genre to date. And I will be there to remind the world why. You’ve hit the nail on the head.” Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation is co-producing the halftime show with Apple, also added comments, explaining, “Kendrick Lamar is truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer. His deep love of hip-hop and culture shapes his artistic vision. He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture worldwide. Kendrick’s work transcends music and his influence will be felt for years to come.”

Since partnering with the NFL in 2019, Jay-Z and Roc Nation have been instrumental in selecting artists for the halftime shows that have real cultural relevance, in relation to current events and, in some cases, the setting of the corresponding Super Bowl game. Given that they enlisted Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to perform in Inglewood two years ago (where Lamar also made a mini appearance), some rap fans speculated that the Caesars Superdome’s location in New Orleans in 2025 meant that Lil Wayne would be chosen to host his own hometown hero show and remind the entire world of his legendary status.

That would have been crass, but after the year he’s had, Kendrick Lamar is just as exciting and more pressing a choice. His culture-eating feud with Drake ended in what has been called the most decisive victory in a rap feud ever. Coming so soon after the events of last spring and summer, booking it for the Super Bowl further underscores how decisive that victory was in the eyes of public opinion. (Tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists are also using this as evidence of what Jay-Z is thinking, which isn’t far-fetched, but he could just as easily be, as Lamar put it earlier this year, responding to “what the culture is feeling.”)