Twitter Reacts To Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige And More

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg opened the Super Bowl LVI halftime show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles with “The Next Episode” on the roof of a house-like stage as hundreds of dancers surrounded them to create a block party for the ages. Joined by surprise guest 50 Cent along with Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem, the crew paid homage to some of hip-hop’s biggest hits.

Amid increased tension over racial discrimination within the NFL, the stars made history as the first hip-hop act to headline America’s biggest stage. At a press conference on Thursday, Dre, whose birth name is Andre Young, stressed the importance of diverse representation in the league and said his halftime show would open doors for more rappers to have the same opportunity. 

“Hip-hop is the biggest genre of music on the planet right now, so it’s crazy that it took all of this—and all of this time—for us to be recognized,” Dr. Dre said Thursday. “We’re going to do it so big that they can’t deny us anymore in the future.”

And they did. With Dre at the helm, the lineup played nine iconic songs during the set including 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair” and “No More Drama,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Some highlights? 50 Cent made his entrance while hanging from the ceiling. Kendrick made a nod to Dre’s infamous 2006 diss track about former N.W.A accomplice Eazy-E with his dancers wearing sashes that said “Dre Day.” Eminem took a knee following his portion of the set, after reports that the NFL wouldn’t allow him to made headlines earlier today. As dancers waved black “Compton” flags on the field below him, Dre closed the show with “Still D.R.E.,” including the iconic lines “Still f*ck with the beats, still not loving police” and “I’m representing for them gangstas all across the world.”

Young and the rest of the stars weren’t paid for the performance, though the show served as a strong launching pad for his upcoming album Casablanco with Marsha Ambrosius, which he announced he had completed in October. 

The promotion worked wonders last year for The Weeknd: On the night of Super Bowl LV, his catalog of music sold 36,500 copies, a 385% jump from the 7,500 copies sold the day prior, according to MRC Data, and on Spotify, his streams shot up nearly 220% in the U.S. and 72% in the U.K. Less than a week later, Live Nation announced that he had sold nearly 1 million tickets to his postponed, 104-stop After Hours world tour. 

The show also garners thousands of social media impressions each year. Through 9:25 pm ET there were 23.6 thousand tweets mentioning the #PepsiHalftime show.