Kendrick Lamar’s Attack on Drake Peaks With Most-Watched Super Bowl Halftime Ever

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance garnered 133.5 million viewers, the highest halftime audience ever recorded, Fox and Roc Nation said Tuesday.

Lamar’s star-studded halftime show, including SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, and Serena Williams, outdrew the average audience of the game itself, which set an all-time Super Bowl record of 127.7 million viewers.

The game itself peaked at 137.7 million in the second quarter; the halftime figure is the average viewership, according to Fox. The mark just clears the bar of Michael Jackson’s record of 133.4 million U.S. viewers in 1993.

Sunday’s game entered into halftime with the Eagles leading 24–0 over the Chiefs. Lamar launched into a set featuring hits like “HUMBLE.,” “DNA.,” “All the Stars” with SZA, and his smash hit “Not Like Us.” The five-time Grammy Award–winning diss track aimed at fellow rapper Drake was highly anticipated, with questions arising in the buildup to the game about whether Lamar would perform certain lyrics that have sparked legal action from Drake.

Lamar smiled at the camera while taunting Drake by name, and the inclusion of fellow Compton-bred Williams was a clear shot at the Canadian rapper. (Her dance was also a shot at those who criticized her for doing the same dance while celebrating winning the 2012 London Olympics.) While he rapped most of the first verse of “Not Like Us,” including “I heard you like ‘em young,” he omitted the word “pedophile” from his performance. He teased it earlier in the set with “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.”

Drake filed a lawsuit in January against his and Lamar’s label, Universal Music Group, alleging that “Not Like Us” wrongly calls him a pedophile. Drake, who is currently touring in Australia, could add the NFL and Fox as defendants in his current lawsuit, or sue them separately. He has also gone after iHeartMedia and Spotify with legal threats or action because of the song.