For many locals whose lives were soundtracked by classic West Coast hip-hop, the Super Bowl was more once-in-a-lifetime concert than football championship.
Outside SoFi Stadium on Sunday just before Super Bowl LVI, Ricardo Roberts and Shelley Overton were wearing matching homemade T-shirts that made their loyalties clear. “Only Here for the Halftime Show,” read the shirts, over airbrushed portraits of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg. The two had flown in from Chicago for Overton’s 50th birthday, and while they were rooting for the Los Angeles Rams, the event was more a concert than an NFL championship for them. “It’s going to be epic,” the 49-year-old Roberts said. “I think it’s going to be one of the best shows in Super Bowl history.” He was right. The 14-minute medley was a deep and specific celebration of Black L.A. culture and hip-hop, rooted in the neighborhoods whose skyline now sports a multibillion-dollar home for the Rams. Visual references to Eve’s After Dark, Tam’s Burgers and Compton’s Martin Luther King Memorial flanked boxes of dancers and musicians, all there to assert the importance of the ‘90s and 2000s era of hip-hop that Dr. Dre dominated, and of which Lamar is now heir apparent.
