An actualPulitzer.Has the NFL ever welcomed this much talent onto one stage?
It also feels pointed.
But times have changed and not just in terms of streaming numbers and record sales.
Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
AsTheNewYork Timesreportedthis past week, 70 percent of NFL players are Black, but it has no Black owners.
Enlisting West Coast legends Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Lamar turned out to be a canny move.
There were no stunts, no off-script detours.
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.Rob Carr/Getty Images
After the show, an NFL spokesperson reportedly said organizers knew he would do so.
(Progress or acquiescence?)
We were all lost in a glorious haze of nostalgia by then.
Mary J. Blige performs during the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show at SoFi Stadium.Rob Carr/Getty Images
Which is another reason the show worked so well.
(It was the low point of the set, but still good fun.)
And then came Mary.
Kendrick Lamar performs in the Super Bowl halftime show.Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Maybe it’s because she was the only artist who actually sang.
Maybe it’s because she chose to pull “Family Affair” (her first No.
Whatever it was, Blige reminded her rapt audience what strength, hard-won independence, and survival sound like.
Her return couldn’t come at a better time.
It was a fitting coda to a watershed moment in Super Bowl history.
Three decades on, it is still about Dre.
