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At the Super Bowl, it's either go big or go home, and the NFL certainly went big with its half-time show at Super Bowl LVI.
An all-star lineup of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, and Mary J. Blige set the stage alight at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, perfectly teeing up a second-half matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.
While the NFL pulled out the big guns for its first Los Angeles-based Super Bowl in the 21st century, it turns out that Dr. Dre was *this* close to bowing out of the event.
In an appearance on Dolvett Quince's "Workout the Doubt" podcast this month, Dr. Dre revealed he was apprehensive about gracing the stage in LA due to the league's response to Colin Kaepernick's protest.
“I was absolutely concerned about that,” Dr. Dre said. “I actually called a couple of close friends and said, ‘Listen, I’m gonna pull out. I’m not gonna do the show. Because I don’t know if I want that smoke. I don’t know if I want the backlash after doing the show and potentially looking like a f**king sellout or something like that.’”
Dre added that he also spoke to Jay-Z when he had mixed feelings about the Super Bowl halftime show, since Jay-Z's company RocNation produced the show.
"We were on the phone for like 10 minutes, and he talked me into doing it. Nas and Jay-Z were big reasons why I decided to do the show.”
Super Bowl halftime show's historic lineup feat. Dr. Dre, Eminem
Super Bowl LVI was held in the City of Angels, and all things considered, the NFL didn't disappoint with the lineup in this one.
While the likes of Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige were already slated to perform, 50 Cent ended up being the surprise performer this year.
Another talking point during the Super Bowl halftime show was Eminem's gesture.
The rapper took a knee for a whole minute after performing "Lose Yourself," defying the NFL's instructions to keep politics out of the show.
While Eminem seemingly did it as an ode to Colin Kaepernick's protest, it invited a fair bit of backlash for the rapper since the quarterback himself was reportedly blacklisted from the league for his protests against racial injustice.
Interestingly, while the NFL has had some difficulty attracting elite talent for the show over the years since Kaepernick was ousted from the league, Dr. Dre himself referenced the issue in his 2018 single with Jay-Z and Beyoncé titled "Apeshit," where he rapped: “I said no to the Super Bowl / You need me, I don’t need you.”
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit the Workout the Doubt podcast and H/T Sportskeeda.
