Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX Stage Was Made to Look Like Playstation Controller

Kendrick Lamar brought PlayStation to life during his enthralling Super Bowl LIX Apple Music Halftime Performance on Sunday (February 9). A new Wired feature details how the controller-inspired set design came to be.

According to the show’s art director, Shelly Jones, the performance followed a strict PlayStation controller theme, intended to represent Lamar’s life 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.”

A vivid aspect of the controller-like space, specifically the cross-shaped section, was the camera’s rotation while Kendrick performed GNX track “Peekaboo.” Dancers wearing white, red and blue, with extra participants in black, also floated around the on-field controller “buttons.”

During his pre-halftime show Apple Music interview on February 6, the 22-time Grammy winner told fans to prepare themselves for “storytelling” in his performance.

“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 said around the 57-minute mark of the video below.

Making special appearances during the halftime show were Samuel L. Jackson, SZA, Serena Williams and Mustard.