Sports

All The 2022 Super Bowl Music Events That Aren’t The Halftime Show

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Super Bowl Music Events 2022
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On February 13, a pretty large football game is happening, and in the middle of it, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige will perform the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. While those artists are the select few chosen to take the field at SoFi Stadium on the big day, the gravity of the Super Bowl means that there will be plenty of other music events taking place in the Los Angeles area during the weekend. We’ve rounded up the most major examples — which include performances by stars like Jack Harlow, Drake, Miley Cyrus, and many others, so check out the list below.

John Mayer Small Stage Series

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Apple Music

This one comes a few days before Super Bowl weekend, but if you happen to live in LA or plan to be in town a few days early on February 8, there’s an opportunity to swing by the Hollywood Palladium and see John Mayer perform some of his Sob Rock songs in front of a live audience for the first time. On top of that, the show is hosted by longtime Mayer pal Andy Cohen and will be preceded by an interview between the two. Even if you can’t check this one out in person, the show will be broadcast on various SiriusXM channels.

Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest

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This annual event is perhaps the biggest non-halftime musical attraction of the weekend, or perhaps more so if duration is taken into consideration, as the festival runs for three days from February 10 to 12 at Crypto.com Arena. Halsey and Machine Gun will perform on the first day, and they’ll be followed by Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, and Mickey Guyton on the second night, then Miley Cyrus and Green Day will headline the third and final night. All in all, those artists make up a diverse roster that will have something to please just about anybody.

Shaq’s Fun House

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Shaq’s Fun House has become a Super Bowl weekend tradition in recent years, as Shaquille O’Neal takes the show around the country to wherever the big game ends up being played. This year, it’s going down at LA’s Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on February 11. The festival/carnival is set to feature performances from Shaq himself (as DJ Diesel), Lil Wayne, Zedd, and Diplo. On top of that, there’s going to be a full carnival, nightlife VIP experience, and a bunch of food vendors. The NBA great has one of the most infectious personalities in pop culture, so his Fun House is sure to be a terrific time.

MaximBet Music At The Market and DirecTC Presents Maxim Electric Nights

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DirecTV and Maxim are working together on a pair of events for the big weekend, both at City Market in Downtown Los Angeles. The first is MaximBet Music At The Market on February 11, which will feature Lil Baby, Gunna, and The Chainsmokers. The next day, they’re offering DirecTV Presents Maxim Electric Nights, a 50 Cent-hosted event that will feature Tiësto, Loud Luxury, and DJ Vice. All of this is going down in “a custom-built 45,000 square foot open-air pavilion representative of a 1980’s retro-futuristic setting.”

h.wood Group’s Homecoming Weekend

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While Drake isn’t part of the hip-hop-heavy halftime show (as far as we know, anyway), he will be making an appearance at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on February 12. If you can get into this event, it’s bound to be a good one. That said, good luck with that, as it’s an invite-only affair.

Sports Illustrated The Party x Palm Tree Crew

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If you’re looking for a party featuring premiere hip-hop talent that you can actually attend, Sports Illustrated and Palm Tree Crew are bringing a nice lineup to Century Park on February 12. Performing at their event will be a good mix of talent that includes Kygo, Jack Harlow, Frank Walker, David Solomon (yes, the Goldman Sachs CEO/DJ), and DJ Irie.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Big Sean And Jhene Aiko Were Mistaken For Another Celebrity Couple At The Rams Game

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It’s not all that unusual to see celebrities at big sporting events but in Los Angeles, it’s apparently such a common occurrence that it’s easy to get them confused for one another — even when they look nothing alike. That’s what happened during Sunday’s NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium, where Big Sean and Jhene Aiko were misidentified on the Jumbotron as Buffy The Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and her husband Freddie Prinze Jr.

On the Jumbotron, a closeup of Big Sean and Jhene Aiko was captioned “Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.,” prompting Gellar to joke on Instagram, “@bigsean do you get mistaken for me as often as I get mistaken for you? (Swipe right to see my actual date at the #ramshouse).” In her post, she compared a selfie with her and her husband to the photo that appeared onscreen at the game, then added a photo of her and her friend Elsa Collins, with whom she actually attended the game.

Sean and Jhene also seemed tickled by the mishap, with Sean posting a photo of the two staring in confusion at the Jumbotron to his own Instagram Story.

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Bad Bunny Got Body-Slammed By Brock Lesnar At The WWE Royal Rumble

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Bad Bunny should really be taking it easy. He’s got his Último Tour del Mundo starting on February 9th in Denver and his World’s Hottest Tour of North and South American stadiums starting in August. If he keeps entering the wrestling ring to grapple with a WWE savage like Brock Lesnar, though, he might not make it to either of those.

That statement might sound preposterous, but that’s exactly what happened this past Saturday night (January 29th) at WWE’s Royal Rumble in St. Louis, Missouri. You see, last year, the Puerto Rican reggaeton star and reigning Spotify streaming king merely performed his song “Booker T” at the event, but this year he actually got in the ring, and it wasn’t pretty. Bad Bunny was first body-slammed by the eventual Royal Rumble champion Brock Lesnar, who then tossed over the ropes like yesterday’s laundry.

The Royal Rumble is a last-man-standing competition, so you have to throw everyone out of the ring to be crowned the victor. Lesnar had just eliminated a wrestler when Bad Bunny knew he was surely next and he retreated to a corner of the ring, looking visibly freaked out. “Did you see the look on bad Bunny’s face?” one announcer says. Before the other announcer shouts, “Jump over the rope Bad Bunny! You got two tours! You got fans, you got music to make!” But it was too late. Lesnar made quick work of Bad Bunny and here’s hoping Bad Bunny has.. .errr… recovered, in time for his tours (wink, wink).

Watch the video of Brock Lesnar “decimating” Bad Bunny above.

The 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show Trailer Combines Hits By Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, And Mary J. Blige

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A few months ago, hip-hop fans’ dreams came true when it was announced that Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige would all be performing together at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 13. Now, as the big day is less than a month away, Pepsi has shared a cinematic new teaser video for the performance.

“The Call,” a near-4-minute video helmed by Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray, features each artist getting an important call, prompting them all to head to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California for the big game. Through the cinematic clip, snippets of the legends’ iconic songs set the stage for the show, as the ad features “Rap God,” “The Next Episode,” “Family Affair,” “Humble,” “Still D.R.E.,” and “California Love.”

Gray says of the video in a statement (via The New York Post), “Each time I collaborate with Dre, it seems to mark an important moment in entertainment history, from projects like Friday, Set It Off, Straight Outta Compton, to now the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. As a super fan, I consider it an honor and privilege to authentically build and create this moment with five of the most legendary artists in music history.”

Todd Kaplan, VP of Marketing at Pepsi, also said in a statement, “Now that we are just weeks away from the most anticipated Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show performance of all time, we’re bringing fans closer to the magic of what will certainly be a colossal moment in pop culture history.”

Watch “The Call” above.

Naomi Osaka Promoted Her Boyfriend Cordae’s New Album In The Most Adorable Way At The Australian Open

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This past Friday, Cordae shared his second album, From A Birds Eye View, which boasted 14 songs and features from Gunna, Lil Durk, Freddie Gibbs, Stevie Wonder, Eminem, Roddy Ricch, HER, Lil Durk, and Ant Clemons. It serves as a well-crafted follow-up to his 2019 debut album, The Lost Boy, which gifted Cordae a pair of Grammy nominations. He’s been out and about promoting it, including on NPR Tiny Desk Concert. He also received a bit of help from his girlfriend, tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Following her second win at the ongoing Australian Open tournament against Camila Osorio, Osaka used some camera time to show love to Cordae’s new album. Osaka took a marker to write on the camera lens, but instead of signing her name on it, she wrote the letters “FABEV,” which is of course the acronym for From A Birds Eye View. She later shared a video of her signing the camera and tagged Cordae with an eagle and eye emoji.

You can watch the video of Osaka showing love to From A Birds Eye View above.

From A Birds Eye View is out now via Atlantic. Stream it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

John Cena Says His ‘You Can’t See Me’ Gesture Was Inspired By G-Unit’s Tony Yayo

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John Cena recently made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his new HBO Max series Peacemaker, dressed in his wardrobe from the show. During the conversation, Fallon asked Cena for the backstory behind his infamous “You Can’t See Me” gesture, which became popular during his peak days as a wrestler in the WWE. Cena explained that the gesture started as a dare between him and his little brother Sean.

“The reason I did this is cause while we were making the album to which my theme music is on, my younger brother, Sean, was always our litmus test,” Cena said. “He kinda liked the same music and he would never go to the studio with us and we’d come home with our tracks and play it for him and he was ruthless man. He would never be satisfied with any song.

“He heard ‘My Time Is Now’ and just did this dance that Tony Yayo did in one of the G-Unit videos,” Cena continued. “It was like, he put his hand over his head and just kind of bobbed his head… and I was like, ‘Man, what are you doing? That looked just ridiculous.’ He said, ‘No, no, it’s Tony Yayo, he’s doing this thing.’”

Cena then suggested that he would mimic the move the next time he was on television, which prompted a dare from his little brother. Cena went through with the dare and the rest is history. “Years later, it just overcame the meme culture and now, literally, I’m invisible,” Cena added. “People are like, ‘Why is Jimmy Fallon talking to an empty chair?’ So many people are going to say that. So I’m invisible now. On a dare, by accident.”

Tony Yayo caught wind of Cena’s comments and showed him some love on Twitter. “Shout out to John Cena,” he wrote in a tweet.

You can watch the interview between Fallon and Cena above.

Quavo Says Drake Is Ducking Him After Losing Their Bet On The College Football Championship

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Drake’s got a plethora of hobbies — collecting women’s bags, shooting hoops with NBA players, and even hitting the links with his uncle — but the one that’s undoubtedly cost him the most over the years is his penchant for sports gambling. In 2019, Future revealed that the two spent their whole joint tour gambling. Drake’s had his share of ups and downs but after Monday’s College Football National Championship, he owes Quavo big.

Quavo, who backed his home state Georgia Bulldogs, called out Drake, who bet on the Alabama Crimson Tide, on Instagram, joking that his Canadian compadre was ducking his calls after Georgia beat Alabama, 33-18. “He ain’t answer the phone,” said Quavo. “I need my chips with dip, baby. I need my chips with dip.” The two rappers had engaged in some cheerful trash talk before the game after Quavo posted a photo of them, warning Drake, “U kno why I’m here @champagnepapi we are locked in we are down.” Drake replied, “Run me my bread right after nice and slow no sudden movements.”

It looks like Drake is regretting that bet, but in actuality, you could say he’s really just paying Quavo back after Alabama beat Georgia in the National Basketball Championship a couple of years ago. He’s probably already hoping to get it back in this year’s tournament, so good luck to both Alabama and Georgia, because this is one rivalry that’s entertaining even without the drama on the field.

Grizzlies Minority Owner Justin Timberlake Broke His Social Media Hiatus To Promote Ja Morant’s All-Star Campaign

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In his third season, Memphis Grizzies guard Ja Morant has risen to full-fledged stardom. Averaging 24.7 points, 6.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals on 57.5 percent true shooting, he seems en route to his first career All-Star berth. He’s been awesome and is vital to the Grizzlies’ 28-14 record that sees them just a game back of the three seed out West.

Last week, when initial returns on All-Star votes were released, Morant sat third among West guards, about 118,000 votes behind Luka Doncic for a starting spot. So, on Tuesday, Grizzlies minority owner Justin Timberlake ended his self-imposed social media hiatus to advocate for the high-flying playmaker’s All-Star campaign.

Fan votes compose just half of the criteria for selecting All-Star starters, but Timberlake’s efforts surely won’t hurt. Stephen Curry has nearly two million more votes than Doncic and Morant, while Klay Thompson is fourth, more than 300,00 votes behind Morant. Among fans, it seems like a two-man race between Doncic and Morant to join Curry as a starter.

Morant and the Grizzlies are riding an eight-game winning streak and have the NBA’s fifth-best record this season. They’ll have a chance to make it nine in a row and add another layer to Morant’s All-Star hopes when they welcome Curry’s Golden State Warriors to town Tuesday evening.

Shaq Is A Budding EDM Superstar And Just Dropped ‘Welcome To The Playhouse’ With Steve Aoki

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As Shaq gears up for his ridiculous — and quite frankly, very awesome-sounding — “Shaq’s Fun House” Super Bowl weekend party with Diplo, Lil Wayne, and bottomless Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, he’s also adding to his EDM repertoire. Through his DJ Diesel moniker, the NBA legend has been playing gigs and festivals and collaborating with electronic stars, but none are bigger than what he just pulled off with Steve Aoki.

On “Welcome To The Playhouse,” Shaq… pardon, DJ Diesel and Steve Aoki have put down a banging trap/dubstep “gametime anthem.” The two have a real buddy comedy vibe brewing and have been friends since Shaq first saw Aoki play at TomorrowWorld in 2014. The following year, Shaq played the festival for the first time as DJ Diesel. Then in 2020, Aoki’s label, Dim Mak, released the DJ Diesel track “Ultimate.” Of this latest track, Aoki spoke on how it’s been a long time coming in a statement:

“SHAQ and I have been wanting to collaborate on a track together for a while now, but it wasn’t until he came over to Aoki’s Playhouse one day that we finally found the inspiration for our collab. We hopped into the studio and the track just came together.”

Shaq echoed the vibe in his own words:

“Working with Steve on ‘Welcome to the Playhouse’ was a blast. We went back and forth for hours together in his studio and eventually ended up with one of my favorite DIESEL releases to date. WELCOME TO THE PLAYHOUSE!”

Listen to “Welcome To The Playhouse” and watch the animated video above.

Shaq Is Throwing An Open Bar Super Bowl Weekend Party With Lil Wayne, Diplo, Papa John’s, And Roscoe’s

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TNT

Go big or go home: Shaquille O’Neal clearly lives by these words. The gregarious NBA legend has seemingly never met a money-making opportunity he didn’t jump into in full force. Lately, he’s been headlining New Year’s Eve festivals under his DJ Diesel moniker, getting put through two tables in a pro wrestling match, and diving into the crypto-currency game so deeply, that his Twitter display name is no longer SHAQ, it’s SHAQ.ETH (a nod to the Ethereum blockchain.)

Now he’s getting ready to throw another edition of his wild Super Bowl weekend party that might just rank near the top of the insane-o meter. Dubbed Shaq’s Fun House, his Super Bowl Weekend… pardon… Big Game Weekend event at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium will feature musical guests like Lil Wayne, Diplo, and Zedd, plus DJ sets from himself and his son Myles O’Neal.

Did we mention that it’s open bar? That’s right, folks. Each ticket holder is entitled to a six-hour open bar, plus bites from “LA’s most iconic restaurants” like Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles, Pink’s Hot Dogs, Diddy Riese Ice Cream, and LA… err…. institution, Papa John’s. The party is also a carnival, with the enormous FTX ferris wheel and circus performers. Shaq, who also happens to be dropping a collab track with Steve Aoki on Friday, laid out on his website that this is clearly an “over the top” affair:

“Los Angeles – I am back to win another Big Game Weekend championship! Part festival, part carnival, I recruited Lil Wayne, Zedd, Diplo and more to perform, plus will be building out a massive carnival experience. Get ready for LA’s most over the top party and celebrity filled event ever!”

This is a very of-the-moment function, with every attendee guaranteed to go home with free NFTs and even features an “Ultimate Giveaway” for $10,000 in Bitcoin among other prizes. The VIP area is hosted by Wynn Las Vegas and I’m not sure what parties you might be planning over Super Bowl weekend, but Omicron not withstanding, Shaq has you topped.

Ticketing pre-sale begins Thursday, January 6th at 10 a.m. PT here, with general on-sale starting the following day at the same link.