How Kendrick Lamar Turned His Super Bowl Halftime Show Into A Giant PlayStation Easter Egg

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl LIX performance has generated a lot of online chatter, and surprisingly, not all of it has to do with Drake. When the Grammy-winning rapper took the stage for the halftime show, the stage itself took the form of a tic-tac-toe board--but X's and O's were accompanied by a triangle and a square, which were meant to evoke the aesthetic of a "PlayStation-style controller," according to the show's coordinators and set designers. The idea--which Lamar personally dreamed up--was meant to represent the rapper's life as though it were a video game.

"I think the [video game theme] was symbolic, his way to reach young people," art director Shelley Rodgers told Wired. "A lot of it is showing his journey, [showing him] traveling through the American dream."

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show set was inspired by the PlayStation controller, show's art director says

"Each performance space was shaped like a button on a PlayStation-style controller, a performance intended to portray Lamar’s life as a video game."

Via: @WIRED pic.twitter.com/OhQZmjTWEM
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) February 10, 2025

Creative director Mike Carson added that Lamar and his production company, pgLang, are "really into keeping things clean and minimal."

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