Our hometown team, the Los Angeles Rams, defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2022 Super Bowl. Of course, many fans were looking forward to the football, but others who aren’t as fond of the sport are focused on the music.

The halftime show contained a line up of iconic hip-hop artists that have been prevalent throughout the decades. The stacked lineup includes 5 of America’s favorite musicians: Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar. This is also the first year that hip-hop is the genre of all of the songs. “I really liked how they used the old school hip hop culture of Los Angeles with artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, while also adding new school artists like Kendrick Lamar,” said Matthew Endoso ‘23

It was the first halftime show for the quintet, who put on an amazing performance with each other. The 5 hitmakers have 43 combined Grammy’s and America is very fond of each artist. 

These artists have a plethora of iconic and timeless songs, but halftime is typically only 15 minutes. However, they used their time perfectly, choosing songs that everyone knows and loves. Some songs performed include “The Next Episode,” “California Love,” “Lose Yourself,” and “Alright.”

Mary J. Blinge was the lone female and more singer based hip hop artist. She performed her pair of songs incredibly. 50 Cent began his portion of the show hanging upside down from the ceiling. His appearance was actually unannounced, but he popped in just to perform “In Da Club” with Dr. Dre.

Fun fact: all of the artists are actually from some part of Southern California! How cool is it that they got to come back to California and perform for a “home” crowd? 

Jay Z wasn’t performing, but remains a prominent part of the performance. This is the third year that his Roc Nation company is executive producing the halftime show! They’ve hosted Maroon 5 and The Weeknd, two musicians with totally different styles. There was a bit of questioning whether the production would be good, but it ended up being amazing! 

The set included the names of places that helped get Dr. Dre to where he is now. Those places, located near Compton, are: Tam’s Burgers, Dale’s Donuts, and the nightclub Eve After Dark. Kendrick Lamar even performed on top of an aerial photograph of downtown Los Angeles. 

Eminem made sure to kneel during his performance, giving a nod to Colin Kapernick who once did the same. Dr. Dre still said the lyric “still not lovin police.” NFL officials and runners of the halftime show requested for the pair to not do either, but they did it anyway. 

The performance resonated more with adults than teenagers. Most millennials grew up listening to some of these iconic performers and it was definitely a cool experience for them, as well as everyone who tuned in. “It was a nice little reminisce for the millennials as well as teenagers into old hip hop,” said Brandon Bryant ‘24. 

Overall, the 2022 Superbowl Halftime performance will go down in history as one of the best!