None Of Your Favorite Rappers Got Paid To Perform At The Super Bowl

Photo Credit: Adrian Curiel

Are the rappers who are performing at this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show getting paid? Here’s how that works.

Eminem, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, and Mary J. Blige all performed at the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on February 13th. However, no one who appeared during the show got paid for their performance.

“We do not pay the artists,” NFL spokesperson Joanna Hunter flatly told Forbes. “We cover expenses and production costs.”

In fact, one report claimed that Dr. Dre sunk $7 million of his own money into the Halftime performance. Separately, Mary J. Blige confirmed that she’s not worried about getting a payday from the NFL. She quoted Eminem in an interview with The Cruz Show.

“Listen, you gonna be paid for the rest of your life off of this,” the r&b songstress 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.”

Do the rappers who performed at the Super Bowl get paid?

The short answer is no, but that doesn’t mean they get nothing for appearing. According to Esquire, the NFL covers travel expenses and all costs related to the production of the halftime show. The 13-minute segment involves so many moving parts that those production costs can quickly become astronomical.

The NFL spent over $13 million on the 2020 performance by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. That cost also includes the paychecks of more than 3,000 staffers involved in producing and managing the 38-part movable stage that was part of the performance. So what will this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show look like?

Dr. Dre gave us a brief teaser of what to expect, but the rappers themselves have kept tight-lipped. Rehearsals for the show got underway yesterday on Thursday, with organizers blasting Bon Jovi and Red Hot Chili Peppers to drown out the sounds coming from the stadium.

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