"He owns that drake guy" — Internet reacts to SZA joining Kendrick Lamar for Super Bowl Halftime Show

Kendrick Lamar recently announced that his frequent collaborator SZA will join him for his performance at the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show on February 9, 2025. The duo has worked together to produce multiple hits in the past.

On January 23, Kendrick Lamar took to social media to share a promotional clip featuring SZA as he announced her as a special guest in his Super Bowl performance. The clip features Lamar talking on his phone on an NFL court.

"What's up with it? Everything smooth. I'm on the field right now. Yeah, you know same old, keeping a body in motion. Getting that wind of notice filled a lot bigger than what people think. Now I have been thinking about a guest performer--"

At this moment, SZA arrives from behind and pours a blue liquid over K Dot to announce her arrival.

Fans took to X to react to Lamar's announcement video featuring the R&B artist, with many alluding to Drake, who's been beefing with K Dot since 2024.

"He owns that drake guy," one X user wrote.

"Drake when he sees 200k+ Mfs at the Super Bowl scream out “Certified Lover Boy, Certified PDF” at least 5 times," another user joked.

"Woulda been harder if Not Like Us started playing," another netizen jibed.

"Looks like Drake won’t be watching the half time show this year," a fan chimed in.

Some fans were not thrilled by the collaboration and criticized it:

"Cringe... On so many levels," a user remarked.

"we about to witness the worst superbowl performance in history," another netizen commented.

"Kendrick being carried by SZA per usual," a fan wrote.

Some other reactions were as follows:

"The marketing for this tour and superbowl performance is insane!," a user opined.

"Drake and lil Wayne would have been way better, i don’t even know any of SZA music," another person added.

---

Kendrick Lamar and SZA set to headline the 2025 Grand National Tour in April

2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival - Weekend 1 - Day 1 (Image via Getty)

Kendrick Lamar will headline his Grand National Tour in April 2025. The tour will begin in Minnesota on April 19 and last 19 days, with shows across the United States, including Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit. It will wrap up in Washington, DC, on June 18.

During the tour, the rapper will be accompanied by SZA, who was last featured on his surprise album, GNX. Lamar dropped his surprise album on November 22, 2025, with the R&B singer featuring in two tracks - Luther and Gloria.

On December 20, SZA released the deluxe edition of her popular album, SOS. The new edition, titled SOS Deluxe: LANA, featured one collaboration track with Kendrick Lamar - 30 for 30.

However, 2024 is not the first time Lamar has collaborated with SZA. The duo previously collaborated on the anthem of the film Black Panther, All The Stars. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 91st Academy Awards.

Another collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and SZA was the 2014 track Babylon. They also collaborated on the song Doves in the Wind for the R&B star's 2017 studio album, Ctrl.

In her January 8 appearance on the talk show Sherri, SZA mentioned that she would love to do a joint album with K Dot.

“I would love that. I think that would be amazing. He’s such a genius. And a part of his genius is like him being so elusive and so mysterious and I love it.”

The R&B artist also elaborated on how Kendrick Lamar helped her push her boundaries of creativity in her "fumbling and finding" era.

"He’s a huge part of my fumbling and finding era because I’m trusting his expertise and being thrust into these moments and spotlight and saying yes. He’s so good at saying yes, but staying grounded. So I’m just like, ‘Teach me, sensei, what you know.'”

With SZA set to join Kendrick Lamar on his Super Bowl Halftime Show, a joint album between the two may not be far away. The show will mark Lamar's second time performing at the Super Bowl. The first time was in 2022 when he was featured in Dr. Dre's all-star team, including Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and 50 Cent.

---