The Super Bowl halftime show is sometimes just as important as the Super Bowl itself. In 2016, at Super Bowl 50, Coldplay’s Chris Martin called it “a combination of the past, the present, and the future.” And Hip-Hop has played a major role in that culture last season.

Super Bowl LVI set the bar high for any future halftime shows. For the first time, the stage saw multiple big names who could all fill the seats by themselves, coming together. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar set the SoFi stadium on fire. Hip-Hop was the highlight of the night, but it wasn’t always like this in the NFL.

The Evolution of the Super Bowl Halftime Show

While the stars of the R&B and Hip-Hop world have been ruling the masses at the Super Bowl halftime show in the past decades, the marching bands had a long 23-year reign on the big stage. It all started back in 1967 with the Grambling State symphonic marching band from the University of Arizona. However, popular music entered the scene in the late 80s. Boy band New Kids On The Block was the first pop group in the Super Bowl at the 1991 Half-time Party.

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Then came Michael Jackson in 1993. MJ moonwalked in front of a 100 million watching. And the rest was history. 1996 saw the flamboyance of Diana Ross in her helicopter. 2001 was a critical year for Hip-Hop as Aerosmith welcomed a young Britney Spears on stage at Super Bowl XXXV. However, hip-hop was always a shadow of the main act and was controversial in the eyes of the media. That includes the 2004 wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson in her performance alongside Justin Timberlake. And more recently, Beyonce sported the black panther outfit in Super Bowl XLVII and caused headlines.

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The NFL is finally embracing black music, especially Hip-Hop and Rap. According to Dr. Ketra Armstrong, “the NFL is positioning the halftime show as a meaningful occurrence.” Armstrong is a professor of sports management and the Director of the Center for Race and Ethnicity at the University of Michigan.

The NFL is finally honoring the essence of Hip-Hop

Many black artists boycotted the Super Bowl after Colin Kaepernick lost his place in the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 for taking a knee during the national anthem. That’s why Super Bowl LVI’s Hip-Hop lineup was surprising to many fans. In 2019, the NFL and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation signed on a multiyear deal for Super Bowl halftime shows to aid in social justice efforts. This is in partnership with the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative to bring the community together through music and sports. Roc Nation also announced that Rihanna will be headlining Super Bowl LVII in 2023 at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

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For a long time, fans thought the NFL was using black talents to entertain the masses without doing anything for their cause. However, with this new deal between Roc Nation and NFL addressing the social injustices in the community, fans can surely expect Hip-Hop and Super Bowls to be electric for the foreseeable future.