The strongest, most touching moment of the 56th Super Bowl half-time show, which for many was also the most outrageous moment, came after around eleven minutes, almost towards the end. The rapper Eminem, in a mangy black hoodie over a gray shirt, had just finished a short version of his old hit “Lose Yourself”. A turbulent ensemble had accompanied him, or at least pretended to be, on the roof of one of the five container houses that had been lined up as a stage construction in the middle of the pitch.
After that, Eminem lowered the microphone. Then the head, then the rest of the body. He knelt down and was silent for 30 seconds, which is an awful lot for a show that lasts almost 15 minutes. For the accompanying music to the gesture, Dr. Dre, the star producer, gangster rapper and essential career helper of Eminem at the time, to a white grand piano. And, like the Hofkapellmeister, played the beginning of “I Ain’t Mad at Cha”, an even older piece by Tupac Shakur. Until in this halftime review of the football final between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals the next item on the program struck like a black bolt.
Black Lives Matter reference: Rapper Eminem kneels like football player Colin Kaepernick once did.
(Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP)
Eminem’s kneel was, of course, a tribute to Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers player, crouched while the US anthem was played before an August 2016 game to protest racist police brutality and discrimination within the National Football League, making himself a symbol but also to the persona non grata of the National Football League. Shakur, on the other hand, is one of the great dead of hip-hop, shot dead in an attack in 1996, an unsolved case to this day.
The 2022 edition was the first to feature rappers
It has long been known that the league has a structural racism problem, even though its teams are made up of around 70 percent black players. Among other things, the lawsuit filed by trainer Brian Flores, who is said to have collected arguments and evidence that the vast majority of jobs in the management ranks are specifically given to white candidates. Seen in this way, Eminem’s gesture – in front of around 100,000 spectators at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and a TV audience of many millions – was quite a sharp scratch in the party glaze that traditionally lies on the Super Bowl holiday and glitters out into the world.
This year’s event had at least a hint of a political element even before it started. The Super Bowl and its halftime music has been around for 55 years, and since the late 80s it has increasingly featured pop and rock artists. However, the 2022 edition was the first in history to feature rappers.
A kind of doll’s house was built from containers as a stage.
(Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP)
This is astonishing and downright suspect, because hip-hop has become the most popular and successful pop music genre since the 90s, and not only in the USA. The fact that he was only now taken into account in the football final has something to do with certain obsessions about the protection of minors, in addition to direct or latent racism. The Super Bowl sees itself as family-friendly entertainment that aims to remain as drug- and swear-free as possible. After Janet Jackson’s right breast was bared against all agreements at the 2004 show, the NFL then booked only well-hung rock as punishment for the next six years, from Paul McCartney to The Who. Only after this sobering up were the presentations allowed to become an ounce riskier and more danceable.
And that’s what the big rap show felt like last Sunday: as if everything that had been missed in the last 30 years really had to be caught up in just 14 minutes. In addition to Dr. Dre, who led the program in all black as a rapping, button-twisting compere, Snoop Dogg, dressed in a blue onesie, stood on the field stage at the beginning. A kind of doll’s house was built from containers, through which the stars moved, surrounded by extras and miming musicians. Minimalist, but also somehow boxed in.
A 2015 song was by far the youngest song on the show
In the party room, 50 Cent suddenly hung upside down from the ceiling, brought his biggest hit “In Da Club”, and immediately the attention went up again, up to the roof. There, Mary J. Blige sang two song fragments with a shiny silver chorus line, and – filmed by a drone – let herself fall backwards to the ground. And handed it over on the fly to Kendrick Lamar, the comparatively young, up-and-coming genre innovator, who brought his 2015 play “Alright” to the lawn forecourt. The song is an anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement and was by far the youngest song on the halftime show.
Two song fragments, then it was over: Mary J. Blige.
(Photo: Chris O’Meara/AP)
And despite all the glorious joy with which the friends in the stands and on the sofas must have swayed to this rap revue, that was also the hardest problem of this show concentrate: With a few exceptions, it was a tribute to ancient times, performed by heroes who today largely deal with the management of their own fame and their various company shares. The fact that Eminem’s kneel was able to give the event some fighting color remains a strong sign.
On the other hand, it is difficult to forgive the fact that Anderson Paak, one of the most interesting rappers of our time, was not even allowed to open his mouth during his short appearance. He sat on the drums as an extra, drumming along with the playback and smiling into the satellite broadcast. If the hip-hop Super Bowl was meant seriously, there would still be enough new material left for the years to come.