Super Bowl halftime show to throw a bunch of hip-hop vets at the wall, see what sticks
Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg are all set to perform at the Big Game
No one can accuse the Super Bowl of having done its halftime shopping last-minute this year: More than four months out from the actual game, the NFL has not only planned, but arguably over-planned its halftime show for the 2022 Big Game, announcing today that Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar will all be headlining the show.
That is, obviously, a shit-ton of middle-aged musicians and also Kendrick, all of whom will be sharing the stage under the benevolent eye of the Pepsi Corporation, known patron of the football-related arts. But while the bill is obviously stacked, you can at least draw a throughline of collaboration between pretty much everybody named; Lamar is the biggest connecting point, having worked with everybody else at some point or another, including collaborations with Blige in 2012 and 2016.
As noted by Variety, the five performers constitute one of the most stacked line-ups in recent Super Bowl history; they’ve got 43 Grammys between them, and a considerable number of No. 1 hits. Three of them (Lamar, Dr. Dre, and Snoop) also have a personal connection to Los Angeles, where the game will be hosted this year, all being native Angelinos.
This year’s halftime show is part of a continued deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, with the man himself laying out the bona fides of each member of the slate, and, really, who are we to deny Jay-Z the opportunity to fill in the relevant details?
On February 13, 2022, at the Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood, CA, in the new SoFi Stadium, Dr. Dre, a musical visionary from Compton, Snoop Dogg, an icon from Long Beach and Kendrick Lamar, a young musical pioneer in his own right, also from Compton, will take center field for a performance of a lifetime. They will be joined by the lyrical genius, Eminem and the timeless Queen, Mary J. Blige. This is the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. This is history in the making.
You hear that, folks? History! We hope Eminem sings his new “Venom” song.