Eminem kneeled during the Super Bowl LVI halftime show on Sunday night in Los Angeles, despite reportedly being told not to. After performing “Lose Yourself” during the medley of hip-hop hits orchestrated by Dr. Dre, Eminem held a kneeling position next to Dre as he played a white piano. The kneel was seen as a show of support for former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during performances of the National Anthem before games in the 2016 season to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
Before the game, Puck News journalist Eriq Gardner tweeted that the NFL wanted to make the halftime show as controversy-free as possible. This meant back and forth conversations with Dre about some of his anti-police lyrics. The NFL also “nixed” Eminem’s plan to kneel, according to Gardner, and wanted to make sure Snoop Dogg did not wear anything gang-affiliated. Eminem kneeled anyway, holding the pose to make sure it was not taken as anything but a statement.
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The Super Bowl LVI halftime show kicked off with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg performing “The Next Episode” and “California Love,” before an unannounced 50 Cent performed “In Da Club.” Mary J. Blige performed “Family Affair,” before Kendrick Lamar performed “M.A.A.D. City” and “Alright.” Eminem then came in to perform “Forget About Dre” with Dr. Dre and “Lose Yourself.” Dr. Dre then did an instrumental of “I Ain’t Mad at Cha” before he and Snoop closed out the show with “Still D.R.E.”
Eminem’s decision to defy the NFL’s wishes was widely praised on Twitter. “Telling him not to kneel was the quickest and sure-fire way he was gonna do it! Do they know who Eminem is? Did they listen to a single song? Ahahahaha,” one fan wrote. “Eminem a GOAT for that kneel,” another commented.
A few days before he took the stage at SoFi Stadium, Eminem admitted to being a little nervous about the performance. He told SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morningย that performing on live television was “nerve-wracking,” even for a pro like himself. He said he was “blown away” by what Dre had planned for the show. “When the whole thing started going down and we were like, ‘OK, this might be actually serious.’ I was trying to envision what Dre. might do,” Eminem said. “I was thinking like, yeah, that’s dope that all of us are gonna rap together, right, and that kind of thing, but I didn’t expect the production to be like this.”
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