Long before we knew that it was going to become a reality, Bomani Jones was calling for a G Funk Super Bowl halftime show. It happened on Sunday night. While most people sang the show’s praises, Jones noted that it was bigger than just a fun show featuring nostalgic rap acts from the 90s.
On Monday’s episode of The Right Time, Jones quickly recapped the Rams’ victory in Super Bowl LVI before saying “Y’all don’t give a damn what I thought about that football game. Y’all ain’t thought about that football game since that football game happened.
“I’m here to talk about G Funk Super Bowl. It was low riders on the field. It was dudes dancing in khaki suits. It was 50 Cent hanging upside down, and as my boy Chase said ‘looking luck Buck Moreland in a beater’. We got that too. It was Kendrick Lamar kicking a new negro spiritual at the Super Bowl. It was Mary J Blige singing one of those damn happiness carols at the Super Bowl. It was Dr. Dre saying he still not lovin’ police at the Super Bowl. It was snoop wearing basically. Head-to-toe designer Crip rag at the Super Bowl. It was Snoop Crip walking at the Super Bowl.”
Jones joked that he was happy he had invested in high-end speakers before the show.
“We was up in Harlem knocking. It was bangin’!”
While he was ready to celebrate the show for being high quality, Bomani Jones also noted it was worth celebrating that the show happened at all. He said that this idea was crystalized for him after a conversation with Mike Ryan from The Dan Le Batard Show, who insisted that last year’s performance by The Weekend was clearly superior.
“I realized some of y’all grew up at a time where they always play rap music all over the place. Some of you grew up in a time where you didn’t have people making significant value judgements about you just on the basis of rap music. People my age, I just can’t stress this enough, it was surreal to see that this is not just accepted as mainstream music, but accepted as something that America could be nostalgic about.”
Jones described the setlist as “all gangsta from start to finish.” The only reason he was disappointed was that Dr. Dre did not play anything from before his album 2001 aside from “California Love.”
The halftime show was a cultural touchstone, but it didn’t have a larger meaning attached for the league as some had speculated. According to Bomani Jones, music was all that mattered and he is still a little gobsmacked that the show happened at all.
“The idea that some real deal, hardcore rap music was being played at the Super Bowl and America wanted it was wild.”
