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Post by me on Feb 14, 2022 5:54:08 GMT -5
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Post by me on Feb 14, 2022 5:54:45 GMT -5
Poor 50 đ
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Post by me on Feb 14, 2022 6:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by me on Feb 14, 2022 6:02:32 GMT -5
Love 50! đ
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Post by matty on Feb 14, 2022 6:37:41 GMT -5
Em on his never ending quest to stop ppl from retiring lol đ„ș
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Post by GG102 on Feb 14, 2022 8:25:28 GMT -5
CNN paid kudos to EM for kneeling and mentioned how EM was the only performer who isn't black that made a political statement in solidarity. It's paying off for EM; not a backlash on the news in the US.
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Post by GG102 on Feb 14, 2022 9:02:09 GMT -5
Hollywood Reporter: "Criticâs Notebook: Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem Lead Thrilling, Nostalgic Super Bowl Halftime"
Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige brought high-flying talent to Super Bowl LVI, while 50 Cent dangled upside down uncomfortably in the first hip-hop centric halftime show in Big Game history.
This yearâs Super Bowl was held at the most expensive, ultra-modern stadium ever constructed, but anybody watching the game other than the 70,000-ish fans at SoFi was treated to an extended exercise in nostalgia on Sunday (February 13) night.
Other than, âHey look, crypto!â the running theme of tonightâs Super Bowl commercials has been, âHey, do you rememberâŠâ with reunions for The Sopranos, Community and Women Who Were Married to Ashton Kutcher. For the most part, I donât remember what any of the ads were for, and my general sense has been one of pity, or at least recognition of my own aging and mortality â whichever is worse.
If the downside of the nostalgia pandering run amuck has been the airing of millions of dollars worth of forgettable advertisements, the upside of the nostalgia pandering would be the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, likely to go down as one of the most entertaining in history, at least if you happen to be in any of the target demographics being aggressively placated.
I am.
Leaving aside that Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent are from New York and Eminem is from Detroit, the halftime show was a spectacular tribute to â90s (and a bit into the â00s) hip-hop and a very, very good tribute to the musical culture of Los Angeles. It featured the effortless swagger of Snoop Dogg, the largely immobile potency of Dr. Dre, the timeless pipes of Blige, Eminem making a potent political stand and 50 Cent dangling from a hoist like he was the star of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. There was dancing, a modular home set meant to lined-up white mansions and a vast overhead map of L.A.. Oh, and Tupac didnât show up in holographic form, much to the relief of nearly everybody watching.
It was, in general, a hoot, the kind of show that could have held its audience at twice or thrice the running time (or, you know, as a stadium tour). Thatâs very rarely something we say at the end of a Super Bowl halftime show, where normally the conversation almost immediately shifts to how great Prince or Michael Jackson or Up With People were when they had the coveted slot.
Though the show was designed to evoke flashbacks from Gen X-ers and geriatric millennials across the full 10+ minutes, Iâd assume everybody will have their own favorite moments.
In terms of pure showcased talent, Iâm not sure you could top Blige, who got to the end of âNo More Dramaâ with a series of astonishing vocal runs. It wasnât that Snoop and Dre were bad from the top, but they were coasting on the trademark charisma that made The Chronic and Doggystyle generational landmarks. âThe Next Episodeâ and âCalifornia Loveâ are party jams, meant to accompany endo and/or gin and/or juice, and the artists navigated through the white mansion sets with low-riders below them.
My reaction to Snoop and Dre? âFun.â
My reaction to Mary J. Blige? âDamn.â
Blige also had the advantage of a somewhat localized performance. She was on one of the rooftops, surrounded by a small group of sparkly dancers, but I didnât get the impression that 50 or 75 things were happening around her that the director was missing, which was absolutely the case with Snoop and Dre. There were things taking place on different floors of the stage houses and on different sides of the stage and basically all around, and all the director wanted to concentrate on was Snoop strolling around in easy-going Snoop style? Itâs a choice.
So first Blige came out and added intensity with her singing, and Kendrick Lamar dedicated his few minutes to easily the showâs best piece of choreography â a sometimes dazzling piece of cutting from on-the-field cameras to overhead shots as he performed âAlrightâ in the middle of a group of dancers in black suits, who all emerged from boxes reading âDre Day.â From Snoop and Dre to 50 Cent â seriously, the less said about âIn Da Club,â the better, other than to note how viscerally uncomfortable I felt for 50 Cent â to Blige to Lamar, it was a musical passing-of-the torch.
Chronologically, Eminem showing up and performing âLose Yourself,â didnât really fit, and it wasnât nearly as good as his recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance with LL Cool J (much less his after-the-fact Oscars performance from a couple of years back). But who cares? It was solid and it culminated in Eminem kneeling, Kaepernick-style, just to irritate some portion of the at-home audience, which was probably already plenty annoyed that after 50-some-odd-years, the NFL finally did a straight-up hip-hop halftime show. At least now that audience has reasons to claim they were outraged.
It wasnât just the chronology that got thrown off at the end of the show. Iâm curious what the negotiations were on who got to close halftime and whether Dr. Dre pulled out his most recent bank statement so that he got to close â and, for some reason, close solo with âStill D.R.E.â I think something bringing Snoop, Drew and Eminem together would have been a more powerful way to end (and that letting Kendrick Lamar wrap things up probably would have been more current and higher-energy).
But weâve reached the quibbling point for me. The show played into one of my favorite eras of hip-hop and didnât require the desecrating of Tupacâs memory. Thatâs nostalgia I can get behind.
And if that wasnât your preferred flavor of nostalgia pandering, since I started writing this commentary, weâve seen commercials featuring Jim Carreyâs character from Cable Guy and the available cast of Austin Powers.
Something for everybody, this Super Bowl.
And football, too.
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Post by matty on Feb 14, 2022 9:05:24 GMT -5
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Post by annie18 on Feb 14, 2022 9:43:59 GMT -5
This is why I love this man, he's a good dude . Idk why some people give him a hard time. You may not like his music but he's one of the most humble people in the industry. He's like a child here haha afraid he was saying too much in the retirement part. And those pics with his family, I don't really remember but I think that it was like more than 15 years we haven't seen pics near his daughters. I'm so happy they were there supporting him. We cannot complain now, we've seen him interact in the real world now he'll come back to his cave hahaha
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Post by annie18 on Feb 14, 2022 9:46:08 GMT -5
Denaun is filming the whole think like a stage mom, I'm dying. I'm sure he was called for moral support, he seemed to be really nervous about this performance.
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Post by matty on Feb 14, 2022 9:49:07 GMT -5
This is why I love this man, he's a good dude . Idk why some people give him a hard time. You may not like his music but he's one of the most humble people in the industry. He's like a child here haha afraid he was saying too much in the retirement part. And those pics with his family, I don't really remember but I think that it was like more than 15 years we haven't seen pics near his daughters. I'm so happy they were there supporting him. We cannot complain now, we've seen him interact in the real world now he'll come back to his cave hahaha I shall continue to complain about his creepy annoying team lol but yes soo thankful we got actual EMINEM content for a change
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Post by annie18 on Feb 14, 2022 9:52:35 GMT -5
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Post by matty on Feb 14, 2022 12:33:32 GMT -5
Em just loves his ass lol
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Post by GG102 on Feb 14, 2022 13:34:02 GMT -5
Paragraph from The Washington Post review:
"So big songs were accompanied by big statements, particularly after a surging performance of âLose Yourself,â when Eminem crouched down on one knee in solidarity with Kaepernick. Whether his gesture ends up going down in the history books as an act of allyship or as a White privilege flex, he at least made it clear where he stands on the issue."
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Post by GG102 on Feb 14, 2022 13:44:22 GMT -5
They were dyed to match his beard and hair.
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