Despite a mostly seamless performance on the Super Bowl halftime stage on Sunday, Kendrick Lamar’s big moment had been spoiled — if you knew where to look.
On Thursday, days ahead of the show, a 13-minute audio track featuring new vocals that sounded like Lamar appeared online, spreading quickly across social media and message boards. While fans speculated about its veracity, the posts were quickly taken down on copyright grounds on behalf of Lamar’s label, Interscope, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
But when Lamar hit the stage on Sunday, his set list — a medley of greatest hits including “Humble,” “Squabble Up” and the smash Drake diss “Not Like Us” — matched almost exactly with the leaked version, barring a few cosmetic changes. (The appearance of Samuel L. Jackson, appearing as Uncle Sam, the emcee of the event, was not included on the leak.)
Still, the leak may have led to a moment of anticlimax for some Lamar super fans. Those who heard the audio would have known that he would start the biggest show of his life with a nod to them: Atop a 1987 Buick Grand National GNX, the rare car for which he named his latest album, “GNX,” he performed a brief selection of an unreleased track, known unofficially among the faithful as “Bodies” or “Tiramisu,” that he used to promote the release of the album in November.
The leaked audio also included metronome clicks to keep time in between songs — a common touch on rehearsal demos for musicians or dancers practicing for a performance with many moving parts.
Representatives for Lamar and the halftime did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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