While the participating teams for the NFL’s Super Bowl are yet to be determined, the halftime show is ready to go. Roc Nation and Pepsi are overseeing the show for the third straight year. This year will be co-headlined by several of hip-hop’s elite: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige.
With the Super Bowl taking place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, it will serve as a homecoming for California natives Dre, Snoop, and Lamar. While the acts only have about 15 minutes to perform and all five artists have more than enough hits to choose from, theGrio has thought of five things that we would like to see during the halftime show.
New Kendrick Lamar Music
The most contemporary artist on the schedule, Lamar is considered one of the best rappers in the world today. With the gap since his last album — the Pulitzer Prize-winning DAMN — closing in on its fifth year, public demand for new music from Lamar is at a fever pitch. So, here’s hoping that he’ll unleash or tease a new song to whet some appetites.
Mary J. Blige Does the ‘Mary Bop’
This will be Blige’s second time gracing the Super Bowl Halftime stage. In 2001, she shared the spotlight with Aerosmith, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Nelly. This time around, her singular voice will likely be featured more prominently and hopefully so will one of her stage moves: the Mary Bop. Blige’s signature dance in front of a TV audience of potentially 100 million viewers would be a great culmination of her on-stage charisma.
NWA Performs “Express Yourself” as Special Guests
More often than not, the halftime show has an unannounced special guest, including Usher during The Black-Eyed Peas set or Missy Elliott coming on during Katy Perry’s set. It would be amazing for Dre and his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bandmates from NWA to come out for their 1988 hit, “Express Yourself,” one of the more uplifting, and family-friendly, songs in NWA’s catalog.
Eminem Performs “Lose Yourself,” And That’s It
Eminem is one of the most commercially successful rap artists of all time. However, it can’t be ignored that many of his hit records have been antagonistic to watermarked events and pop culture personalities. His 2002 number one hit, “Lose Yourself” is among the most enduring, universal tracks of his career. In today’s culture, performing tracks like “The Real Slim Shady” and “My Name Is” would be super problematic, even if their problematic subject matter is what made them hits to begin with.
A Tribute To Nate Dogg
The late singer Nate Dogg was a frequent collaborator of Dre, Snoop, and Eminem. Once part of the trio 213 with Snoop and rapper Warren G called 213, Nate Dogg became one of the go-to hook singers for Dre, his artists at Death Row and Aftermath, and other big names like Ludacris, Mos Def, and Jermaine Dupri. It would be wonderful to see a tribute to Nate Dogg and some of his famous hooks, like “The Next Episode,” “Area Codes” and “Regulate.”
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