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Dr. Dre says Nas & Jay-Z stopped him from pulling out of Super Bowl halftime show

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The 2022 Super Bowl halftime show was a notable moment in hip-hop history, but it almost didn’t happen. While chatting with fitness entrepreneur Dolvett Quince on his Workout the Doubt podcast, Dr. Dre revealed he nearly pulled out of the gig, citing concerns about the potential backlash of partnering with the NFL after Colin Kaepernick‘s exile from the league.

“I was absolutely concerned about that,” he admitted. “I actually called a couple of close friends and said, ‘Listen, I’m gonna pull out. I’m not gonna do the show. Because I don’t know if I want that smoke. I don’t know if I want the backlash after doing the show and potentially looking like a fucking sellout or something like that.’

Dre’s conversations with Nas and Jay-Z, he revealed, are what ultimately convinced him to go through with the performance.

“I got on the phone with Nas. He called me up and was like, ‘Yo bro’ — you know, Nas has that voice — ‘Yo bro, you gotta do it. You gotta do this. It’s gonna be so powerful for fucking hip-hop, for the culture, for you, for L.A. and the whole nine,'” Dre recalled.

He continued, “We were on the phone for like 10 minutes and he talked me into doing it. Nas and Jay-Z were big reasons why I decided to do the show.”

As fans know, Dre’s halftime show included appearances from Snoop DoggKendrick LamarMary J. BligeEminem and surprise guest 50 Cent. It’s now up for five awards at the 2022 Primetime Emmys.

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