Eminem reportedly ignored orders from the US National Football League (NFL) when he kneeled during his performance at the Super Bowl 2022 halftime show.
The moment happened at the close of the rapper's song 'Lose Yourself' amid widespread reports that Eminem's idea to take a knee had been kiboshed by officials ahead of the performance. NFL player Colin Kaepernick first popularised the gesture in 2016, meant as a symbolic move against police brutality and the oppression of Black people and people of colour in the US.
According to a report by Puck, the NFL rejected the rapper's concept of kneeling, as well as that of Snoop Dogg wearing something that could appear gang-related, to avoid the performance becoming a "divisive culture war moment".
Another of the performers, Dr Dre, was said to have felt "disgustingly censored" by the league, who apparently took issue with the lyrics "still not loving the police", featured in the hip-hop hit 'Still D.R.E'.
The NFL denied having told Eminem he couldn't kneel, telling the New York Post that players were able to take knees without sanctions since 2016, and musical performers would be no different.
It's not the first time the 'Venom' hitmaker has shown support for Colin Kaepernick. During a furious four-and-a-half-minute long freestyle take down of Donald Trump at the BET Awards in 2017, he shouted out the quarterback, rapping: "This is for Colin, ball up a fist!/ And keep that shit balled like Donald the bitch.
Meanwhile, right wing commentators like Charlie Kirk were disgusted by the "sexual anarchy" they percieved to be a part of the show, presumably referring to choreography featuring women twerking while 50 Cent rapped about sex in his hit 'In Da Club'.
Kirk insisted the performance "shouldn't be allowed on television".
