Super Bowl half-time shows was on fire with Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and let not forget Kendrick Lamar

reported by BBC

We’ve all been to one of those house parties where nobody can agree on the music. 

You might hear the first verse of a song, maybe even a chorus if you’re lucky, but it’s never long before someone is fiddling with the playlist and impatiently changing the track.

Super Bowl half-time shows often feel a bit like this, albeit on a much larger scale, as performers traditionally try to cram as many of their hits as possible into a tight 14-minute set. 

That problem was set to be even more pronounced this year. With five joint headliners, the question hanging over 2022’s hip-hop half-time show was how to do justice to the stars’ sizeable back catalogues.

But in the event, Dr Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J Blige and Kendrick Lamar struck the perfect balance between packing in as many monster hits as they could, while also giving each one – and each other – time to breathe.

The show opened with rapper and super-producer Dr Dre emerging from the floor in front of a giant mixing desk. Within seconds, the instantly recognisable refrain of The Next Episode broke out and Dre’s first co-star appeared alongside him. 

“La-da-da-da-dah / It’s the one and only D-O-double-G,” sang one of the most distinctive voices in rap, before Dre yelled “Snoop Dogg!” in unison with the crowd. 

Any scepticism about this year’s choice of performers was instantly extinguished as the audience erupted. Hip-hop had made it to the Super Bowl.

It wasn’t long before the track made way for the distinctive opening bars of the next song. For a half-time show that was celebrating West Coast hip-hop, the inclusion of California Love in the set list was a no-brainer, and saw Dr Dre rapping the late 2Pac’s most famous rhymes.

While a rumoured appearance of a 2Pac hologram failed to materialise, Dre’s performance was a fitting tribute to a rapper who died in 1996 aged 25, but is still considered one of the greatest who ever did it.

Audience members old enough to have been around when these songs were originally released will remember live hip-hops gigs in the nineties and noughties often consisted of little more than a rapper, and their DJ, on a stage. 

That clearly wasn’t going to cut it at the biggest US TV event of 2022, and, as a result, this half-time show came complete with expensive cars, a full live band, a swarm of energetic dancers, and an effective set design which let the hip-hop heavyweights weave seamlessly between songs.

The stage consisted of five adjacent living rooms, giving the impression of a different party happening within each one. 

There were doorways connecting the rooms, providing a fluidity which meant the five stars could move between them to collaborate and appear in each other’s songs. 

The whole thing looked like it could have been inspired by the Destiny’s Child video for Say My Name (and doubled as a representation of what a retirement home for rappers might look like).

This effective staging was the work of British set designer Es Devlin, who was most recently in the news for her work on Adele’s cancelled Las Vegas residency. 

Songs would overlap as the stars moved through the rooms, with some performing on the roof, others from inside their room, and, in the biggest surprise of the night, one even hanging from the ceiling. 

As if five headliners weren’t enough, 50 Cent made a surprise appearance by hanging upside down, a recreation of his most famous music video for his most famous song, In Da Club. He might have been a little out of breath, but the crowd went wild.

Considering the outcry over Janet Jackson’s nipple and MIA’s middle finger at previous half-time shows, it could have been a risk to hire five rappers with a carefree attitude to swearing, to put it mildly. But all five kept things surprisingly, maybe even disappointingly, clean. 

Curse words were replaced with family-friendly lyrics, and the only thing vaguely approaching controversy came when Eminem took to the stage towards the end of the show (more on that in a sec).

Song list

1. The Next Episode – Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg

2. California Love – Dr Dre

3. In Da Club – 50 Cent

4. Family Affair – Mary J Blige

5. No More Drama – Mary J Blige

6. M.A.A.D City – Kendrick Lamar

7. Alright – Kendrick Lamar

8. Forgot About Dre – Eminem

7. Lose Yourself – Eminem

8. Still D.R.E. – Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *