Ice Cube Explains Why He Didn’t Perform at Super Bowl Halftime Show With Dr. Dre (Exclusive)

The halftime show at Super Bowl LVI was a huge hit as fans praised the performances from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. But what would have made things more interesting is if additional West Coast artists made cameo appearances, specifically, Ice Cube who was in the hip-hop group N.W.A. with Dre in the 1980s and 1990s. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Ice Cube revealed why he wasn’t part of the halftime show. 

“Peoples ask me ‘Cube, why wasn’t you there?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, when I do the Super Bowl, it’s going to be Ice Cube.’ You know what I’m saying?” Ice Cube exclusively told PopCulture. “I ain’t going to do the Super Bowl, you know what I mean? It’s part of nobody else show. I mean, it’s going to be my show. So I enjoyed it, enjoyed the game. Good for the Rams to get one, bring one to Los Angeles. Because at first, only the Los Angeles Raiders had Super Bowl here. So now you got the Los Angeles Rams with one here. Salute.”

With Los Angeles having two NFL teams, the city will likely be in the rotation for hosting the Super Bowl, which means Ice Cube will have plenty of opportunities to headline a Super Bowl halftime show in front of his hometown crowd. But what did he think about this year’s show? 

“Yeah, I loved it,” Ice Cube said. “You know, just seeing all those great artists together. All those artists that’s affiliated so close with Dre, you know what I mean? We all part of his family tree. So to have us all up there, we would’ve been a two-hour halftime show. So it was great to see them guys get down.”

This year’s halftime show was different as there were five headliners. Normally, the Super Bowl halftime show features one headliner who could bring a few special guests. The last time more than two artists headline the show was in 2004 (Super Bowl XXXVIII) and that was Jessica Simpson, Janet Jackson, Kid Rock, Nelly, P. Diddy and Justin Timberlake. For Blige, this was the second time she performed at the halftime show as she was a special guest for the event at the 2001 game (Super Bowl XXXV), which also featured Britney Spears, Nelly, Aerosmith and NSYNC.