TDE president Punch calls Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance a "full circle moment" even though he left the label to start his own

Punch, the president of Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), shared his thoughts about Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance during a recent podcast interview.

For context, Lamar was signed to TDE since the beginning of his rap career in 2005. However, in 2021, he announced his departure from TDE to start his own, pgLang. Lamar's 2022 album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, was his last LP with the label.

On April 17, 2025, Punch (whose real name is Terrence Louis Henderson Jr.) appeared on the Curtiss King TV YouTube channel for a three-hour podcast interview. He discussed Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show and how it created a "full circle moment" for the record label despite the rapper's departure from TDE.

"It was absolutely insane. Yeah, it was man, truly a full circle moment this whole year. You know what I mean? The whole past two years has been a full circle moment, even with like Dot leaving the label to go start his own thing to coming back now we together doing this stadium run. Even the Super Bowl, he pull SZA in, you know what I'm saying. Like it shows the strength of the family right," Punch said.

During his performance, Kendrick Lamar had invited SZA (currently signed to TDE and formerly managed by Punch) to perform All The Stars and Luther. The two artists will also start their "Grand National Tour" later this month.

Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Punch described how it felt to see the rapper's work process as he wrote and recorded songs, recounting:

"I walk in the studio and he's in there and I'm watching him build this chorus, like, his stacks, his harmonies, his melodies, and he's doing this first before he did any verse or anything right. I'm like "Oh this kid's a songwriter."

Punch continued:

"He know how to make a song, he know how to make music. It's not just rap." Then he added the verses to it, I'm like "Oh yeah." Yeah, this kid is gonna be amazing, he's gonna be great right like from the first day, yeah.

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Kendrick Lamar gave a shoutout to Punch while accepting his Grammy for Not Like Us

Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us took the music industry by storm following its release in May, at the height of his rap battle with Drake. The diss track broke multiple records and was nominated for five Grammys this year, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and won in all five categories.

During his acceptance speech for Song of the Year, Kendrick Lamar gave a shoutout to Punch, recounting a piece of advice the TDE president shared with young artists to always "respect the art form."

“To the young artists, like my man Punch says, I just hope you respect the art form. That’s all. Respect the art form [and it will] get you where you need to go. Alright, salute, I appreciate y'all. I love y'all," Lamar said.

Lamar performed at the Super Bowl days after his success at the Grammys. The show was highly anticipated after many questioned whether the rapper would perform the diss track amid Drake's legal battle with UMG regarding the song.

Kendrick Lamar teased the song throughout his 11-minute set and even referenced the ongoing lawsuit with the throwaway line, "I want to play their favorite song... but you know they love to sue."

Kendrick Lamar performed Not Like Us as the penultimate song. While he refrained from using the word "p*dophile," he did not hold back as he stared straight into the camera when he rapped the line, "Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young." The crowd also joined the rapper during the song's famous "A-minor" line.

Many expected Not Like Us to be included in the tracklist for Kendrick Lamar's latest album, GNX, given its popularity. However, Punch explained the song's absence when someone asked why it was left off the album during a Q&A on X following the 2025 Grammys, writing in a post at the time:

“Integrity. That record was for the battle. The album was a separate thing. Could have put it on there to boost overall sales but choose to leave it for what it was.”

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Updates regarding Drake's lawsuit against UMG

In other news, an amended version of Drake's defamation lawsuit against UMG alleged Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance was defamatory. In the amended lawsuit filed on April 16, Drake's legal team claimed that Kendrick Lamar omitted the word "p*dophile" during his performance because “everyone understands that it is defamatory to falsely brand someone a ‘certified p*dophile’.”

The amended lawsuit also claimed the performance was an attempt "to assassinate the character of another artist." In response, UMG has dubbed the amended lawsuit "frivolous and reckless," accusing Drake of "being misled by his legal representatives into taking one absurd legal step after another."

Last month, UMG requested that the court dismiss the lawsuit, and a hearing regarding the motion is scheduled for June 30.