Dr. Dre Reveals What NFL Didn’t Allow Him to Do Doing Super Bowl Halftime Show

There’s been much speculation and conjecture regarding what the NFL would and wouldn’t allow Dr. Dre to do during the Super Bowl halftime show. Now, the rapper himself has spoken out about the situation and revealed how things really went down. “There were a few things we had to change, but they were really minor things,” Dre told TMZ on Monday, after the epic performance.

Dre went on to address the rumors that the NFL had an issue with Eminem taking a knee in reference to Colin Kaepernick’s method of silent protest over police brutality, which sparked a massive controversy. “Em taking a knee, that was Em doing that on his own,” Dre clarified, “and there was no problem with that.” The award-winning hip-hop producer did note that there were some changes, pointing out that lyrics from Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” had to be adjusted. “The beginning of Kendrick’s set, he says if Piru’s and Crips all got along, they had a problem with that, so we had to take that out, no big deal, we get it.”

Notably, BroBible reported that some fans also noticed other lyrics from Lamar’s song were changed as well. “Damn the NFL really made Kendrick censor “and we hate Popo” that’s the most NFL move ever,” tweeted sports agent Daniel Poneman. This is notable because there had initially been reports that NFL representatives suggested to Dre that they were not comfortable with the line “still not loving police,” from his hit 1999 track, “Still D.R.E.” The line is a throwback to Dre’s days with his iconic rap group N.W.A., who recorded a controversial song titled “F- Tha Police.”

A source close to the situation stated that Dre was being “disgustingly censored,” but they did not indicate this was a direct quote from the award-winning hip-hop producer. In fact, ahead of the big show, Dre was quite optimistic. “This should’ve happened a long time ago,” Dre said at a pre-Super Bowl press conference, per THR. “Hip-hop is the biggest genre of music on the planet right now, so it’s crazy that it took all of this time for us to be recognized. I think we’re going to go on and do a fantastic show and we’re going to do it so big that they can’t deny us any more in the future.”