Super Bowl LVI - Half Time Show Relevance

Super Bowl LVI between Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams left us with a 3 point victory for the Rams over the Bengals but we want to tell you why the halftime show was so important for hip hop. 

The halftime show at the Super Bowl is as old as the event itself, although initially it was the local marching bands that provided this entertainment for the public. It was not until the 90's that renowned artists began to appear, such as the mythical half time of 93' where NBC managed to hire Michael Jackson to perform on stage in a successful attempt to increase the audience ratings. Other spectacular moments were the shows presented by U2, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and The Rolling Stone.

This year's hype announced that not just one artist would be headlining the show. In an ad unveiled by Pepsi called "The Call" directed by F. Gary Gray reveals Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Eminem, Mary J. Blidge and Kendrick Lamar as the ones in charge of filling the halftime of the LVI superbowl. With this cast it was clear that for the first time hip hop and American rap would have a place in one of the most televised sporting events of the year.

On February 13, many viewers were anxiously awaiting this meeting of possibly the best representatives of the genre in the last twenty years, hip hop came for the first time to this event and had to leave a very good impression. There have been some criticisms about what was experienced and the little visual "show" that compared to shows in previous years was far below but here you will understand why lovers of the genre if they think it was an excellent show.

The show was named "Dre Day" or as I see it "The tribute to Dr. Dre". Dre is that producer and rapper who not only contributes to music with his songs but also by finding talent in the streets and bringing it to our ears. Dre is largely responsible for the success of each of the artists who accompanied him during the presentation and there is one of the first nods to how important Dr. Dre has been to American hip hop and the world scene.

That's why the first thing we see is Dr Dre sitting in front of what looks like a mixing desk in a recording studio rising in the middle of the Sofi Stadium field. Table mounted on a structure that refers to very typical places of the city Compton (Dr. Dre's hometown). We see a barbershop that in the cancellation reflects the famous donut store "Randy's Donuts" located in Englewood California, a restaurant (Tam's Burger, local business with Mexican and American food), a legendary nightclub in the city where *coincidentally* 50 cent appears surprisingly performing the popular "In the club", a replica of Martin Luther King's monument outside the city hall, and the building that explodes with Eminem is the supreme court of the city of Compton. All that mounted on the entire map of the city itself. Also from this city are the "Crips", a violent gang to which Snoop Dog belonged many years ago, the creators of the "Crip Walk Dance", dance steps that Snoop Dog himself demonstrated during his appearance and later imitated by a dance group on the map of the city. That dance and many of the signs Snoop Dog made during the show are symbolism used by the gang belonging to the city.

Many of the invited rappers lived most of their lives on the streets, surrounded by violence, drugs, police abuse and today, thanks to their talent and effort, they managed to change their lives and even managed to do the halftime show of the superbowl in 2022. That's the story that the show wanted to tell us, saying: after so much abuse now that I'm here, what can you tell me?

We see Eminem kneeling as a sign of protest against racism and police violence in the United States, a gesture that the NFL itself censored after former player Colin Keapernick did it in 2016, to which Dr Dre sang "Still not loving the police".

The show tries to put us in the street context that gives origin to the genre, even forming a gang on stage (The Crips again), showing us all those elements that will take us to any neighborhood extracted from a Grand Theft Auto which in turn is inspired by the city of Los Angeles, even Snoop Dog himself enjoyed a touch in the middle of everyone and "NO ONE TELLS HIM ANYTHING". By the way Did you notice Anderson Pack on drums?

"Hip hop is one of the biggest and most important genres in the world, it's about time they stop making us less important" said Dr Dre in an interview and that's what this halftime show was made for and it will surely go down in history. Dre ends this show sounding "sophisticated and very elegant" above all telling us "Hip Hop put me on top".