Kendrick Lamar turned the Super Bowl LIX Apple Music Halftime Show into a gaming spectacle on Sunday (February 9), with a massive PlayStation controller taking center stage. The story behind this gaming-meets-music mashup was revealed in a fresh Wired piece.
Art director Shelly Jones spilled the tea, explaining how they transformed the stage into a giant PlayStation controller to symbolize Lamar’s life journey as a video game.
“I think the was symbolic, his way to reach young people,” Rodgers told Wired. “A lot of it is showing his journey, traveling through the American dream.”
“Dave Free and Kendrick are really into keeping things clean and minimal,” added the show’s creative director, Mike Carson. “So we went with a monochromatic concrete look and allowed the video game motif to come alive through dialogue, lighting, choreography, and music.”
The stage’s PlayStation controller design really popped during Kendrick’s performance of GNX hit “Peekaboo,” especially when cameras spun around the cross-shaped area. The vibe got even better with dancers decked out in white, red and blue outfits bouncing around the giant controller “buttons,” while others rocked all-black fits.
In his Apple Music chat on February 6, just days before the big show, the 22-time Grammy champ gave fans a heads up about what to expect – a deep dive into storytelling.
“I think I’ve always been very open about storytelling through all my catalog and my history of music. And I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on,” he dropped at around the 57-minute mark of the video below.
The star-studded halftime show brought out some major names, with Samuel L. Jackson, SZA, Serena Williams and Mustard joining Kendrick on the PlayStation-inspired stage.
