This year’s music lineup, with its cumulative 43 Grammys, is already being hailed as the best ever Super Bowl halftime bill. The world’s most watched musical performance will feature Dr. Dre, Eminen, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar, along with R&B singer Mary J. Blige.
The trailer, titled “The Call,” which immediately went viral, has more than 12million views.
If you’re on the side of “more is merrier” you’ll be pleased by this show, but with just 12 minutes for the entire performance you won’t get much from any of the performers.
“I think multiple artists is a good thing, because you’re going to like something,” said Charles Holmes, cohost of Spotify’s “The Ringer” Music Show.
“Just know that it’s some history, that it’s a celebration of how far you know Hip Hop has come, how far R&B has come, how far.. you know.. music and our culture has come,” said Blige.
She hopes the performance will offer something positive at a time when the NFL is once again facing controversy and allegations of racism.
“We focused on uplifitng the people with the music, uplifting the people with the beauty and the fashion and bringing them back to a place where we can all come together.”
Some people may struggle with endorsing the halftime show lineup that celebrates a league whose racial woes appear to be worse than ever.
Just last week Brian Flores, one of just two African-American coaches in the NFL who was fired after three overachieving seasons with the Miami Dolphins, filed a class action suit against the NFL, over the “fake” use of the league’s Rooney Rule, a league policy that requires teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching and executive football operations vacancies.
Before that, in October the NFL was rocked by the release of years of misogynistic, racist and homophobic emails from Las Vegas Raiders Coach Jon Gruden and least we not forget the Colin Kaepernick controversy.
Five years ago, high-profile performers like Rhianna, Cardi B and Adele were shunning the NFL halftime show in protest. Now, thanks to an agreement between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Jay-Z, the hip-hop mogul’s Roc Nation entertainment company significant power to choose the acts for the NFL’s signature events.
Jay-Z’s deal was originally supposed to be about working on the inside with the NFL’s billionaire owners to press for better deals for players like Kaepernick and more African Americans in decision making positions within the NFL. That hasn’t been the case, but thanks to Jay, we have this half-time show to look forward to.
“Jay-Z is one of the main reasons we’re sitting here right now,” Dre said in October which the half-time show line-up was first announced.
“See that’s hip-hop, Dre,” Snoop said. “See how hip-hop has been implemented at a high executive level to where the NFL trusts him? He’s a part of our culture; we’re a part of his culture. So it’s a beautiful thing to where the NFL is catching up.”