Ra pop culture event as eagerly awaited as the game itself (if not more so), the Super Bowl supershow is the most-watched musical event on television in the world. With a minimum of 100 million viewers, the American football championship final and its halftime show is a tradition as old as the game itself (55 years). In the early years, college marching bands came to entertain (already quite spectacularly) spectators while waiting for the game to resume. In 1972, Ella Fitzgerald was the first celebrity to sing there, and since New Kids on The Block in 1991, only superstars ensure the halftime showaccompanied by thousands of dancers and technicians, pyrotechnic effects and spectacular costumes.
This year, the Los Angeles Rams take on the Cincinnati Bengals at home at SoFi Stadium. And who is better placed than Andre Romelle Young, aka Dr. Dre, one of the most significant figures in Californian culture, leader of NWA, rap producer as visionary as he is prolific, to ignite the stadium at halftime of the game? ? At 56, this native of Compton, a hot district in the south of Los Angeles, came with his proteges: Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. This is the first time rappers have headlined the event, produced by Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation and sponsored by Pepsi…
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On a bright carpet representing the streets of LA, a series of sober white buildings, pavilions and restaurants (Tam’s Burger – an institution) rose from the ground. Dre, hands on his legendary turntables, stands up and waves to the crowd. The opening bars of his good old school rap hit “The Next Episode” fill the stadium as he greets his bandmate Snoop Dogg. “Da, da, da, da, da, it’s the one and only DO-double-G”, replies this one. Sorry ? Did melted cheese nachos (a favorite snack for Americans watching soccer on TV) fall into our ears and make us deaf? The original lyrics are: “It’s the motherfuckin’ DO-double-G”… The word “fuck” is used six times in the song, less than the word “bitch” (four times), “shit” (three times), and “nigga” (three times)… But none of those words will come out of his mouth. Not once. No sooner does he let out a “motherfu…” than he doesn’t finish.
Exit the vulgarities
The tone is set. The sequel is a medley of American rap hits stripped of their vulgarity and aggressiveness. While the Super Bowl was able to serve as a political platform (we remember Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, who, in 2016, knelt down during the American anthem to protest against police violence – that had cost him his career), the rappers did not sing any of their lyrics attacking the police, the state, extolling the joys of street violence and the drug deal…
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When “California Love” resounds, Tupac Shakur’s hit, 2Pac – one of the most talented colts of Dr. Dre’s stable, Death Row, shot dead at 25, a victim of the merciless war between the east and west coasts – the emotion is palpable. It’s a family party that 50 Cent is surprised to join, performing his irresistible “In Da Club”, surrounded by a gang of girls waving like sirens in the dampness of the nightclub. “Boom boom it’s your birthday…” Yes, it’s even a “Family Affair”, as Mary J. Blige, rap heroine in thigh-high boots covered with broken mirrors, sings. “No more tears! she then implores. His cry sounds like the reconciliation of America, after years of lies, excesses and hatred. Sweetness in a tube…
Controversy or not?
To complete this appeasement operation, Kendrick Lamar, the new god of hip-hop and Pulitzer winner, comes out of a box repeating “Things gonna be alright”, dressed in black, medals on his arm. He paves the way for Eminem. “You only have one shot, one opportunity” (“You only have one chance, one opportunity”), launches this one of its fast and unique flow, accompanied by Anderson .Paak on drums. Words that should be the motto of every football player. Do not miss your chance… to score a “touchdown”, a goal. At the end of his performance, Eminem puts his knee down, probably in support of Colin Kaepernick. A controversial topic? Not sure. He had already made the gesture during rehearsals and the NFL had found nothing wrong with it.
Dr. Dre, a broad smile on his lips, closes the show by typing the bars of “Still DRE” on the piano and will not cut the stanza “still not loving police”. He is right to rejoice: his show was perfect, the sequences of songs impeccable, with pinpoint precision. No heaviness here, only lightness, which implies enormous mastery and work. The choreographies are polished, sexy but not obscene. The whole is deliberately respectful, unifying. After 14 minutes, it’s already over. It happened so quickly. All the years 2000 paraded before our eyes blurred by a tear of nostalgia. It is without context one of the best shows of the Super Bowl in terms of aesthetics, musical requirement, staging. A triumph. The 100,000 spectators who each paid an average of $5,601 to attend are delighted. And U.S. too.
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