During Super Bowl LVI’s halftime show extravaganza, featuring the likes of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent, rapper Eminem took a knee in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The move by Eminem came after he performed “Lose Yourself” in front of the sold-out crowd at the Los Angeles Rams’ SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. If you recall, Kaepernick led a series of protests meant to highlight the injustice of police brutality against Black Americans that involved players kneeling during games as the national anthem played. He was subsequently blackballed from the league and, after taking action, received a sizable settlement from the NFL.
Early reports claimed the NFL had denied Eminem’s request to kneel during the performance, but he did so anyway in defiance of their decree. They also allegedly tried to prevent Dr. Dre from rapping the line “still not loving police” in his song “Still D.R.E.,” but he didn’t listen either.
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However, the NFL rather dubiously claimed in a statement that it was in on Eminem’s kneeling all along, well after the fact.
“We watched all elements of the show during multiple rehearsals this week and were aware that Eminem was going to do that,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said, according to ESPN.
Strangely, the NFL failed to address the other claim that they’d tried to censor a Dr. Dre line that was critical of police.
