Eminem, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige will descend on the SoFi Stadium outside for the Super Bowl LVI Pepsi Halftime Show on Sunday (February 13), a historic moment for Hip Hop culture as a whole. However, some people may be surprised to find out they don’t get paid for the performance.
The NFL offered 2020’s headliners Shakira and Jennifer Lopez “union scale,” which is “a fraction of the six-and seven-figure sums” the artists usually earn regularly. “We do not pay the artists,” NFL spokesperson Joanna Hunter once told Forbes. “We cover expenses and production costs.”
But Mary J. Blige isn’t worried about it. In fact, she knows she’ll benefit from this performance for years. During an interview with The Cruz Show, the R&B powerhouse used a line from Eminem’s 2002 monster hit “Lose Yourself” to explain why she’s comfortable not making any money.
“Listen, you gonna be paid for the rest of your life off of this,” she said. “They don’t have to pay me. But if it was payin’ it would be a lot of money. But I’m good. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Eminem says that in ‘Lose Yourself,’ this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
According to Esquire,NFL policy promises to cover travel expenses for the artists and all costs related to the production of the halftime show, but the performers don’t take home a paycheck. Even for just a thirteen-minute segment, the costs for the performance can be astronomical. For example, the league spent over $13 million for the 2020 performance by J.Lo and Shakira, an amount that also finances the paychecks of up to 3,000 staffers involved in the production in addition to complicated technical elements of the performance such as a collapsible, 38-part stage.
Whatever Dr. Dre, Eminem, K. Dot, MJB and Snoop Dogg have in store, it’s being kept tightly under wraps. As rehearsals got underway on Thursday (February 10), organizers blasted Bon Jovi and Red Hot Chili Peppers music to masks the sounds coming out of the stadium.
TMZclaimed some residents in the nearby neighborhood aren’t happy about having to endure “Livin’ On A Prayer” on repeat as they put their children to bed during late night rehearsals. Blige has been tight-lipped about the setup too but did admit it gave her “goosebumps.”
The Super Bowl LVI Pepsi Halftime Show takes place as the Los Angeles Rams take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Kick off is at 3:30 p.m. PST.
