In 2019, the N.F.L. partnered with Roc Nation, the entertainment and sports company led by Jay-Z, in part to reinvigorate the Super Bowl halftime show and, as the league said in a statement announcing the deal, “to amplify the league’s social justice efforts.”
At this year’s halftime show, the third under Roc Nation’s guidance, Los Angeles rap icons Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, as well as the singer Mary J. Blige delivered a lively performance. But it was the rapper Eminem who may have made the biggest statement of the night, and not with his voice: He knelt on one knee and held his head in his hand after performing “Lose Yourself,” his anthem about self-determination from the movie “8 Mile.