This year’s NFL Super Bowl halftime show was one of the most talked-about in years. The performance, which took place in Los Angeles during the midway point of the Big Game, featured legendary hip-hop artists like Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and more.
Videos by American Songwriter
But it almost didn’t go ahead as planned, according to Snoop.
Jay Z, who is the official Live Music Entertainment Strategist for the National Football League, had to fight for the show, said Snoop.
Speaking with Tidal’s Elliott Wilson in an interview on Friday (March 4), Snoop talked about the moment in which the performance could have gone on as planned or been thwarted by league officials.
Said Snoop (via XXL Magazine), “Jay was the first one that came to the dressing room when I got offstage. We had [300 Entertainment CEO] Kevin Liles in there. Kevin Liles had Jay on FaceTime, trying to show him where we was at. So then he came down, and soon as he came in he hugged me. We hug each other tight. It was as if we won a championship. Like, you know when you’re genuinely happy for each other? People don’t understand, me and him are the ones. He’s the one on the East. I’m the one from the West.”
That bond helped to fuel Jay Z when the NFL tried to reportedly censor or curtail the performance.
Snoop explained, “We love each other. Like, not secretly, like publicly, we love each other. It is what it is, so it’s like for him to go to bat for us and tell the NFL, ‘Fuck that. They perform or I quit,’ that was the most gangster shit out of everything. Then with attire and kneeling and all this … you can’t wear your gang bang shit? Jay-Z hit me like, ‘Wear what the fuck you want to wear. Peace to the Gods.’”
In 2019, Jay Z signed a deal with the NFL to head the league’s musical entertainment, which includes the biggest stage in music: the Super Bowl halftime show. At that time, many criticized Jay’s deal with the league given the NFL’s history with the protesting Colin Kaepernick.
But it turns out, for those who appreciated the 2022 halftime show, it was good for the league, the performers, and the music at large.
The Weeknd performed in 2021 and before that Jennifer Lopez and Shakira headlined the 2020 halftime show. In 2022, the halftime show was reportedly more widely viewed than the game itself, pulling a whopping 103.4 million views.
