Dr. Dre, one of the six legendary rap and hip-hop artists who took the stage at the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, revealed some secrets about the performance.
Dr. Dre performed alongside Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, and Eminem at the Halftime Show. It was an iconic performance that resonated with many fans who grew up listening to their music in the 1990s and 2000s. But in order to make the Super Bowl show family-friendly, some specific aspects of the performance had to be changed.
According to CinemaBlend, Dr. Dre told TMZ that the NFL only required “minor changes” to be made to certain song lyrics. Most of the artists are used to creating non-explicit versions of their songs anyway. But Kendrick Lamar’s introduction to “M.A.A.D City” required another modification for the Super Bowl show.
“I think you know the beginning of Kendrick’s set, he says ‘if Pirus and Crips all’ — they had a problem with that, so we had to take that out. No big deal. We get it,” Dr. Dre explained. “All and all we came in; we were professional, everybody was on time, and everybody really felt the magnitude of what this thing was and what we were able to accomplish.”
“Pirus and Crips” refers to gang activity in Los Angeles. The NFL apparently didn’t want to bring up gang-affiliated language in the show, especially when the Super Bowl took place in Inglewood, California.
NFL Rep Speaks on Eminem Taking Knee During Super Bowl Halftime Show
After the Super Bowl concluded last weekend, some reports came out about Eminem’s controversial kneeling during the Halftime Show. These early reports said that the NFL requested Eminem not kneel (which many saw as a nod to Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police violence).
But now, multiple sources say that’s not true. They claim the NFL knew what Eminem planned to do and had no issue with it. One NFL rep spoke to Fox News about the false reports earlier this week.
“That report was erroneous,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said. “We watched all elements of the show during multiple rehearsals (last) week and were aware that Eminem was going to do that.”
This matches what Dr. Dre told TMZ earlier today. When he talked about Kendrick Lamar making minor changes to “M.A.A.D City,” Dr. Dre also brought up how the Super Bowl organizers had no issue with Eminem’s actions.
“There were a few things that we had to change, but it was like really minor things. Em taking the knee, that was Em doing that on his own, and there was no problem with that,” Dr. Dre said.
Fans watching the performance took issue with the gesture, but it sounds like it was fully sanctioned by the league.
