Key Takeaways
- Jay-Z, who helped select the past seven halftime performers, makes sense as the Super Bowl LXI headliner after a year spent celebrating his catalog and legacy.
- The takeaways predict new music around the game, frame the booking as proof that hip-hop has become a safe legacy choice, and question whether Gen Z shares millennials’ reverence for Hov.
- Across eight observations, the piece weighs possible guests like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Wayne, calls Kanye West an impossible surprise, and forecasts a hit-heavy set featuring “99 Problems,” “Niggas in Paris,” and “Empire State of Mind.”
Once upon a time not too long ago, Jay-Z woke up, looked in the mirror and declared, “You’re the only one who can do the job.”
On Monday (Oct. 26), the NFL and APPLE announced the halftime performer for Super Bowl LXI: Jay-Z, the man who has played a major part in picking the halftime performer for the last seven Super Bowls.
The news isn’t exactly surprising. Puck reported last week that Jay was set to headline the big show, which takes place Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. But Jay and the NFL made it official with a commercial that aired during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles Monday night game.
It’s also been somewhat expected since 2019, when Jay and Roc Nation started picking the show’s headliners, a run that’s ranged from Jennifer Lopez and Shakira to Kendrick Lamar to Bad Bunny. For years, Jay stayed coy about putting himself on the bill. Back in 2023, he told Entertainment Tonight he thought it would be “selfish to pick myself too early, but maybe one year.” Apparently, that year is now.
As with Kendrick and Bad Bunny the past two years, the pick is bound to spark another debate, much of it in bad faith, about what kind of music belongs at the Super Bowl and whether Jay is the right person for the job. It also arrives at a telling moment: rap isn’t as dominant in pop culture as it once was, and Hov has spent much of the year celebrating his catalog and legacy.
With the news official, here are eight initial takeaways from Jay-Z headlining the Super Bowl.
A thin field made Jay-Z the obvious answer
Picking the right Super Bowl halftime act isn’t easy.
You need someone with a legacy catalog who still appeals to a broad audience, and some of the most obvious candidates, like Drake or Taylor Swift, likely wouldn’t do it, for reasons ranging from spite to business interests.
This year, the rumored favorites included Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Harry Styles at various points. But since Roc Nation took over the show in 2019, its mission (and by extension, Jay’s) has been to present a more multicultural vision of pop music, and none of those names quite fit that bill.
In the end, the easiest pick was the guy making the pick. His catalog of hits is as deep as anyone’s, and he’s been everywhere this year, from his 30th-anniversary stadium run, which included two nights this past weekend at SoFi Stadium, to his HBO docuseries, JAŸ-Z in 8. He’s one of the most visible figures in music right now, and he hasn’t dropped any new music.
Speaking of new music…
A new album is coming—the only question is whether it lands before or after the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl doesn’t pay its halftime performers beyond union scale (though Jay, through Roc Nation, is compensated by the NFL for producing the show). That makes the gig essentially a promotional opportunity: performers get what amounts to around $200 million worth of airtime, which typically leads to a major streaming bump afterward.
But Jay is too established, and frankly too competitive, to let this whole year be a pure legacy play. Don’t be surprised if new music arrives right before the game (à la Beyoncé dropping “Formation” the day before Super Bowl 50) or shortly after. Whenever it comes, don’t expect to hear much of it at the halftime show itself, where the move is to hit people over the head with bangers.
Hip-hop has become the safe choice
In 2008, the NFL was still reeling from the Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson moment four years earlier, when her breast was exposed during the halftime show.
So Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played Super Bowl XLII. Petty was 57, the same age Hov will be when he hits the stage in Los Angeles.
Large swaths of fans still consider Jay cool, but make no mistake: this is a legacy booking, and he’ll be the oldest headliner of the Roc Nation era (yes, even older than Dr. Dre was in 2022). In that sense, it’s closer to the NFL’s post-2004 playbook, when the league leaned on safe, beloved veterans like Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen, than to the edgier contemporary stars like Rihanna and Bad Bunny. The difference is that this time, the elder statesman is a rapper.
This will probably be the last rap headliner for a while
Realistically, how many rappers can still pull this off? For years, Lil Wayne was making his case…but that window has closed. Like we mentioned before, the Drake stuff seems unlikely. Rappers like Playboi Carti aren’t really known enough. Maybe Travis Scott could have done it, but while he does spectacle, he doesn’t really have the catalog. Maybe if he has a massive 2027 it’ll make sense. Or since the 2028 game is in Atlanta, maybe a cross-generational show featuring everyone from OutKast to Carti could work. Seems unlikely, yes, but we’re spitballing here.
Either way, there’s a sense of finality to this one. Jay is the main reason rap became a regular fixture at halftime, so it’s only right he’s the last one to headline it.
There’s a Jay-Z Gen Z thing bubbling
At Saturday’s show at SoFi Stadium, Jay addressed the chatter that had been happening. On social media, there were many posts and TikToks about how cheap tickets had gotten for the Friday show and the issues with the sound quality for the show.
Jay addressed it taking a more conspiratorial view. “Y’all gotta be very aware of what’s going on in the world, right? People will tell you that nobody was in here tonight, but you got eyes, you can see. People will tell you that the music wasn’t great, but you got ears,” he said. “Question everything in this world of AI.”
It was a revealing moment. There’s always going to be chatter, but the fact that he addressed it in such a public manner is a sign it reached him, but also that he’s feeling particularly vulnerable about it. The convo around the tickets has highlighted something people have been talking about: the fact that Jay-Z is more of a millennial GOAT than a Gen Z one.
And, in fact, the reaction to the Super Bowl has been somewhat divisive, notably amongst younger fans who don’t hold the rapper in the same esteem. Come Super Bowl night, it will be interesting to see who tunes in and who tunes out…like when Tom Petty played.
There is truly only one guest that would be earth-shattering, and it’s not happening
As soon as the news was officially announced, the speculation started about which guests Jay would bring out. The problem? He’s already brought out just about everyone during his stadium run, from Beyoncé to Eminem to Rihanna to Dr. Dre and Snoop.
Outside of a Kendrick pop-out, a Wayne appearance (as a show of grace), or Coldplay (a sly reminder of what once was), there aren’t many options left.
Well, there’s one: Kanye West. It would be a legitimately mind-melting moment. It will also never happen, considering (A) the severity of what Ye said about Jay’s family (B) his antisemitism comments in the past.
Jay will have to carry on the halftime storytelling tradition
For all his confidence as a performer, Jay is fairly stripped-down on stage: a mic, a band, and Hov in a Yankee fitted.
That’s an awkward fit for the Super Bowl halftime show, which is a TV event more than a concert. The last couple of shows, from Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny, were narrative feasts, full of symbolism and nods. Jay will have to do something similar and put a narrative spin on his catalog.
We’ve already seen a hint of it in the ad, which featured him surrounded by goats. (Eleven goats, to be exact. Mean anything?) We imagine the performance won’t be quite that literal.
Here’s what we think the setlist will be
The Super Bowl is for monster songs, so don’t expect a B-sides show. He’ll touch most of his eras (well, not Kingdom Come) and keep album cuts to a minimum. Expect Beyoncé, one of the great Super Bowl performers of our lifetime, to pop out for “Crazy in Love” and “Empire State of Mind.”
With only about 13 minutes to work with, expect plenty of medleys. Here’s what a 16-song set could look like:
1. “Dynasty Intro”
2. “Can’t Knock the Hustle”
3. “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”
4. “Jigga What, Jigga Who”
5. “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”
6. “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)”
7. “U Don’t Know”
8. “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)”
9. “Crazy in Love”
10. “Public Service Announcement”
11. “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
12. “99 Problems”
13. “Encore”
14. “Run This Town”
15. “Niggas in Paris”
16, “Empire State of Mind”
