In what is clearly one of the biggest weeks of Kendrick Lamar’s career, the rapper set aside some time ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show to discuss the intricacies of his art form with fellow A-Lister Timothée Chalamet.
Fresh off of sweeping the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday, the “Not Like Us” artist teamed up with the “A Complete Unknown” Oscar nominee for a sit-down, car ride interview with Apple Music and the NFL out Friday.
“In the studio, if it’s been a while, you might come off with a little bit of writer’s block. So we always got this thing about, like, keeping the pen on. This exercise, going there, doing 16 bars, going home. Always keep moving,” Lamar first shared before asking a follow-up question. “How do you feel if it’s been a while for you? Take a minute to warm up in front of the camera, take a minute to remember the lines, get into character? What’s that process like?”
“I try to prep at home. But the thing about acting is, if you don’t have an audience, it’s just a form of insanity. ‘What are you doing?’ So I definitely try to warm up and then lose that self-consciousness when you finally get back out there, but that takes time,” Chalamet answered. “I always try of embrace failure. You were talking about that the other day; that the most important part of a bad day is the way you leave it. If you can leave a bad take or a bad day with a positive attitude, then you’ve got nothing to fear.”
The “Man at the Garden” rapper agreed with the “Dune: Part Two” star, saying, “I think that’s probably one of the biggest misconceptions about me as an artist. I’m always locked in and I’m always trying new things, whether or not I like them is a whole other conversation, but I have to keep the pen moving. It’s my own form of sanity. But it’s also given me the opportunity to learn myself, find out who I am.”
“When you’re writing, man, you got to sit and go through the emotions and be vulnerable — fun song, sad, got some type of depth or not, these are still relatively your personality pushing through,” Lamar elaborated. “A lot of these records I write man, stuff I probably would have never expressed or even known about myself if it wasn’t for an instrumental behind me.”
“With my projects, it always be that one record I feel like I want everyone to hear, in order to push the narrative, just the message and the tone that I want to get across,” he then explained. “I have so many other records that have different narratives and tones, like reflections. To preserve a space for that one that I want everyone to hear, that’s what pushes me. ‘Man at the Garden,’ even the fact that it’s at the top of the record.”
In the end, the Best Actor nominee and certified football commentator couldn’t help but gush over the halftime show performer, adding, “Also, just being a fan of your music forever and knowing where you’re at now, man, it’s crazy, the Super Bowl Halftime Show — and you just keep climbing.”
Elsewhere, Chalamet also teased what he is excited to see from the upcoming performance itself: “I’m most looking forward at the Super Bowl halftime show to seeing Kendrick, seeing what songs he chose. Cause though I get to do this interview, I’ve been given no early access. I’m excited to see if he brings anyone out and I’m excited to see the vibe in New Orleans, a city I’ve never been.”
Kendrick Lamar performs at Super Bowl LIX when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles, this Sunday on Fox and Tubi.
