Super Bowl halftime show should be one for the ages
LOS ANGELES — Tourists and locals alike glance up at a giant poster advertising Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show as they shuffle around the downtown area.
It may as well be the Mt. Rushmore of hip-hop.
This was the kind of lineup the NFL had to envision when it tabbed Jay-Z to produce the annual spectacle beginning with the 2020 game
Kendrick Lamar. Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg. Mary J. Blige. Eminem.
Any of those artists would be capable of headlining the Super Bowl halftime show on their own.
Together? It’s an embarrassment of talent and accomplishment.
Dr. Dre has been one of the most successful artists, producers and entrepreneurs in the business for more than three decades since first rising to prominence as a founding member of pioneering West-Coast group N.W.A.
He helped launch the careers of Eminem and Snoop Dogg, two of the most popular and commercially successful acts of the late 90s and early 2000s and still massive stars to this day.
Dr. Dre was also largely influential in the development of Kendrick Lamar, who grew up just down the road from SoFi Stadium. One of the earliest memories he has of knowing he wanted to be a musician was when he witnessed Dr. Dre and 2Pac filming the video for “California Love” in his neighborhood.
Now he’s one of the most accomplished and influential artists in the world despite emerging on the scene just over a decade ago.
Kendrick Lamar has 13 Grammy Awards, six Billboard awards, an Academy Award nomination, a Pulitzer Prize and was named one of the Time’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Then there’s Mary J. Blige, often referred to as the “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” for a career that has spanned more than 30 years.
All 13 of her albums have reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts.
It’s nearly impossible to imagine the show being a disappointment, even if all five acts were to do a snippet of a song all by themselves on the stage and then make way for the next act.
But this is the Super Bowl halftime show, so expect plenty of pomp, circumstance and surprise.
Plenty of speculation has taken place online about potential unannounced guests and which of the announced artists will play with one another.
There are even prop bets on the possibilities, though wagering is not allowed at regulated sports books in Nevada.
Dr. Dre is a slight favorite over Mary J. Blige to perform first with Eminem as the biggest long shot on the board.
“California Love” is the betting favorite to be the first song performed, which makes sense given the relevance of the song to all of the artists and the location of the game.
It’s the same reason the song is also the favorite to be the last song played.
Eminem is a minus-180 favorite to have at least some part of his performance censored by NBC. Exotic bettors can get as much as 3-to-1 odds that Snoop Dogg partakes in marijuana on stage.
There are also odds on whether all five artists will take the stage at the same time to perform together at any point during the show with “No” being the current favorite.
It’s probably for the best. That could break social media.
One piece of history will be made for sure as it was announced this week that Sean Forbes and Warren “WaWa” Snipe had been added to the bill as the first American Sign Language performers at the Super Bowl halftime show.
Snipe signed the national anthem and Eric Church’s performance of “America the Beautiful” before last year’s game in Tampa.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.