Ever since 1967, American families have gathered around the television to watch the Super Bowl. This anticipated game isn’t just about football anymore. It’s about commercials, celebrities, partying, and the main event for many: the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 

     The Halftime Show this year was performed by famous rap artist Kendrick Lamar. Lamar has won a total of 20 Grammys in his career, five of which came from one of his most famous songs “Not Like Us.” During the Super Bowl Halftime show, Lamar sang this song and many other fan favorites like “All The Stars” (feat. SZA) “humble” and “Euphoria.” There is debate on whether or not Lamar did a good job, with some saying that he didn’t meet expectations and others saying it was a great halftime show. 

Freshman Jason Crawford

Q: What did you like about the Super Bowl Halftime show?

A: I really liked it because I’m a very into rap kind of person. I’ve been getting into artists like Kendrick [Lamar] as well as Tyler The Creator, and seeing the Halftime show and seeing the symbolism that he had was really cool to see and just listen to the music [which] showed the stuff that he’s put time and effort into performing it to hundreds of people.”

Q: What was your favorite thing about the performance?

A: My favorite thing was how he teased one of his newer songs, which got five Grammys, which was “Not Like Us.” It was funny how he [said] that they would probably sue about it, but he still [sang] it anyways.”

Q: Did you think Kendrick Lamar was a good choice to perform at the Super Bowl?

A: “I think Kendrick was a good choice out of the past few halftime shows that I’ve seen.”

Q: Is there anything about the performance that you would have liked to see?

A: “I’d say having one song different which would be the song “PRIDE.” I thought that would have been a really nice [song] to have in there.”

Sophomore Braylon Heyer

Q: Did you like the Super Bowl halftime show?

A: “Personally, it was all right. Kendrick is obviously a good artist, but there’s been a lot better halftime shows. It was very bad for how high the expectations were.”

Q: What were your expectations for the Halftime show?
A: “I expected more songs. For one, there were only, like, 5 songs. Obviously, there’s a limited amount of time, but also everybody knows there was a certain song that was going to be played, which in my opinion, is very overplayed so I didn’t enjoy it as much as others might.”

Q: What would you say was your favorite thing about the performance?

A: “My favorite was probably Samuel Jackson’s cameo. Him being there was really surprising, and him playing Uncle Sam was also cool.”

Q: Would you have liked to see a different artist perform instead of Kendrick?

A: “Obviously, there’s artists that could do it, but I think Kendrick definitely deserved to do it this year, obviously including the Grammys that he won. So, I think he had a good enough year to do this performance.”

Q: Is there anything that you think could have improved the performance at all?

A: “Probably a better Super Bowl to be honest. The performance was just another blow to how bad the Super Bowl was.”

Sophomore Payton King

Q: Did you like the Super Bowl halftime show?

A: “I did. I’ve been a Kendrick fan for a few years, so it’s really nice that… more people know about him.”

Q: What was your favorite part of the halftime show?

A: “When he was calling out Drake and looked at the camera. Also, his pants were sick.”

Q: Was there anyone else you would have liked to have the Super Bowl halftime show?

A: “Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.”

Q: Was there anything that could have improved the performance?

A: “If more people knew the songs. It was kind of just a bunch of middle-aged men [watching] Maybe get up [and] jump a little.”