In the past year Kendrick Lamar has experienced his most successful year of his 22-year career. He has not only become a massive name in pop culture, but is also regarded as one of the best rap artists and musicians of all time. He has gone on to win countless awards, such as the 2018 Pulitzer Prize, and amassed an astonishing 57 Grammy nominations. His continued popularity and dominance over the rap genre make him the perfect candidate to perform at this year’s Super Bowl.
One of the biggest things to happen in rap music this year, and the industry overall, was the series of diss tracks released by two titans of the rap genre, Aubrey “Drake” Graham and Kendrick Lamar. On Drake’s newest album, “For All The Dogs,” which was released on Oct. 6, 2024, the song “First Person Shooter” features another artist named J. Cole, saying the lines “Love when they argue the hardest MC Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me? We, the big three, like we started a league.”
In this line, Kendrick, referred to as “K-Dot,” is mentioned as being in a “big three” accompanied by two very popular, well-respected artists in the industry. However almost six months later, on Future and Metro Boomin’s collab album “WE DON’T TRUST YOU,” Kendrick’s feature on the song made it seem like he would be insulted to even be in the same league as them, saying “f— the big three, it’s just me.”
Knowing Kendrick’s history and past discography, it’s easy to see why he may think that way; his second album, “Good Kid M.A.A.D City,” sold 242,000 the first week and has remained on the Billboard 200 since its release in 2012.
Additionally, his third studio album, “To Pimp A Butterfly,” is regarded as one of the best music releases ever, being the highest-rated album on the popular music rating site Album of the Year, sitting at a score of 95/100. This and more adds to the ever evolving list of reasons why he was picked to perform at this year’s NFL HalfTime Show.
The biggest song to come out during this time was the smash hit “Not Like Us,” which served as a victory lap for Kendrick, breaking many records since its release. Some of the records include most single-day streams for a rap song in the U.S. and was the fastest song to surpass 100 million streams on Spotify, only taking nine days to accomplish. The song also recently won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
Student Xavier Smith gave some insight into just how popular the song “Not Like Us” became. “I didn’t really know who [Kendrick] was before, and now I know who he is. That diss track had a lot of impact. I feel like this one was more mainstream than the others,” Smith said.
After a long hibernation and silence from Kendricks’s social media, he suddenly released a brand new album titled “GNX” with almost no prior press on Nov. 22, 2024. Even without any announcement before the release, it still managed to sell 319,000 equivalent album units in just its first week (equivalent to 379 million streams).
Senior Elijah Russell shared his thoughts on the new album. “Holding GNX up to his previous works, I think it’s a little bit of a tough comparison, but the album by itself has a few superb tracks, even if it’s not the best thing that he has released, especially the song TV Off, I’m kind of tired of hearing it,” Russell said.
Because of Kendrick’s success and overall year, the NFL saw an opportunity and asked him to do the Super Bowl halftime show this year, deciding to bring on the huge R&B artist SZA, who he will also be touring with later this year all across America. Russell discussed his excitement for their performances.
“I have never been to interested in Super Bowl halftime shows just cause a lot of the performers are artists that I don’t really care about, but especially because of the rap beef and Kendrick’s rising popularity, I think it would be awesome to see him come out on one of the most view events in American television and put a good show on,” Russell said.
With Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance, arguably the biggest stage and biggest accomplishment an artist can have, right around the corner, there’s no telling the success Kendrick can still go on to achieve in his career. Taking into account his past awards, it’s clear that 2024 was the year of Kendrick, and 2025 will continue to be.
