Kendrick Lamar has treated fans to a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his historic Super Bowl halftime show.
In an Instagram post on Thursday (February 13), the rapper’s pgLang company shared a video of a rehearsal session involving Kendrick and surprise guest Samuel L. Jackson, who introduced and narrated his performance.
AD LOADING...
The two-minute-long clip — titled “Rehearsal Day 20” and dated February 5, just days before the big game — shows the legendary actor in a giant rehearsal space performing his theatrical lines as “Uncle Sam.”
It also shows Kendrick rehearsing his much-discussed performance of his hit Drake diss song “Not Like Us,” albeit silently.
AD LOADING...
Elsewhere in the video, Lamar and Jackson share a laugh with others involved in the complex production, while SZA, Mustard and Serena Williams — who all joined Kendrick on stage in New Orleans — also make brief cameos.
pgLang also shared a series of behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram, showing Kendrick and SZA rehearsing their duets, early plans for the video game-inspired stage design and the modified Buick Grand National car that featured in the beginning of the show.
Kendrick Lamar’s longtime manager and creative partner Dave Free also recently shed light on the Super Bowl halftime show, which was viewed by a record 133.5 million people.
“We wanted this performance to have a cinematic and theatrical element to it. We can confidently say that there’s no Super Bowl performance that’s quite like this one,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
The pgLang co-founder and former TDE executive added that he and Kendrick prepared for the event by watching every single Super Bowl halftime performance, drawing particular inspiration from Beyoncé, Prince and Michael Jackson’s shows.
“The feel of it is Black America. What does Black America look like, and how to control that narrative of what it means to be Black in America versus what the world’s perspective of that is,” he said.
AD LOADING...
Free also addressed Dot’s setlist, which mainly featured his Drake diss tracks “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us,” as well as songs from his latest album GNX.
“It wasn’t about playing the hits,” he explained.
