Hometown Love in the Superbowl Halftime Show

It wasn't just our favorite raps songs from the last three decades

One of my more uncommon interests is that I deeply love Super Bowl Halftime shows. I guess it comes partly from doing marching band in high school, college, and even a couple summers of Drum Corps. There’s something about the format that intrigues me. What’s a performance you can do with maximum impact within a 15 minute time frame while only having 5 minutes before and after to set up and tear down? It’s an artistic and logistical challenge at every level of performance, so it’s interesting to see how the biggest performers/artists approach the medium.

This year the headliners for the Super Bowl Halftime performance this year were Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, two westcoast rappers from the Los Angeles area, which was fitting because the Super Bowl took place in LA this year.

(And before we go much further here are my thoughts on the performance: I really liked it, I enjoyed the music and vocal performances from the artists. It wasn’t the most visually striking halftime show but that seems mostly due to the artists not really being dancers. Also every Super Bowl Halftime show that happens during daylight has like a -10 point general effect deduction because you are limited in terms of what you can do with lighting which really changes how impactful the visuals can be. So overall I personally enjoyed the show.)

But there was something else I especially loved.

Compton USA - A Hometown Affair

If you watch the show you’ll see they’re performing on top of a giant tarp that looks like google maps. That is actually a map of Compton, a suburb of LA that is only 10 miles from the stadium they were performing at. Not only that but the makeshift buildings they were performing on were based off of real life buildings in Compton. Two of the artists performing, Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar, were both from Compton with Snoop Dogg being from nearby Long Beach.

Over the years Compton has been a constant topic of mention in Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar’s music. Dre’s last album was even just called “Compton”. There is a local love in their music, an appreciation of the struggles, a ride or die attitude to their city. They aren’t stories about wanting to get out, it’s about what’s happening there.

I find that admirable. When these artists started making music, Compton was in tough shape being ravaged by gang violence and low social mobility. I’m sure there were plenty of people who wanted to get out of there, but the biggest culture producers from the area didn’t espouse that in their music.

I’m writing this because I love my town Galesburg, Illinois. We have our problems for sure, but that doesn’t make it any less of our town. No matter the struggles we can be proud of where we come from and recognize the struggles. Maybe someday we’ll have a Galesburg loving artist who hits it big and headlines the Super Bowl. If that’s ever going to happen, we’ll need to instill that spirit across town and especially to our children, and maybe then they can carry on the message of our struggles. There’s nothing that made Compton more lovable than Galesburg, it’s the choice of whether to take pride in your place or not. I choose to take pride, and that’s why I liked this year's Super Bowl Halftime show.