In a new interview with The Breakfast Club, Mary J. Blige revealed that the NFL kept checking what her outfit was going to be like for the Super Bowl LVI halftime performance.
After touching upon topics such as self-love, working on an album with Dr. Dre, and her upcoming memoir, she was asked if she was prohibited by the NFL from doing anything during the Super Bowl. Blige revealed that they said no such thing to her, but the NFL did check on her outfit a few times.
“No, they just kept coming and checking my outfit,” she said at the 16:40 point of the interview. “They would come and make sure everything was good, and I’d say, ‘You sure everything’s good? I can show this much leg… I can show this, this, this…’ They’re like, ‘You’re great.’ So they just kept checking my outfit, they never said anything to me about anything.”
She was also asked if she was aware of betting sites taking bets on what her outfit would look like. “That’s good! That’s fun,” she replied. “That’s beautiful.”
In another chat at the Hot 97 studio this week, Blige—who performed alongside Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and 50 Cent—spoke about the pearl-clutching response some more conservative viewers had for the halftime show. I don’t pay attention to all of that," she told Ebro. "I’m just paying attention to how we got raised up. Someone looked at us—well, somebody looked at [Dr.] Dre and said, ‘We need you.’ And Dre looked at me and said, ‘I want you.’ And so on and so forth with all his friends. So, I really don’t care about [the backlash].”
Elsewhere in the Breakfast Club interview, she spoke briefly about how she got involved with the 50 Cent-produced Power Book II: Ghost, and said she and Dre have already started work on an album she hopes will be entirely produced by him. The topic of retirement also briefly came up at the 20:00 mark, to which she replied she is thinking about retiring “soon.” She stressed, however, that she’s got “a lot going on,” so she hasn’t really made a decision on when she’s going to retire just yet.
Following her Super Bowl performance, it was announced that Blige is set to be one of the performers at the 53rd NAACP Image Awards when it airs on Feb. 26 on BET. Others expected to attend the show include Issa Rae, Kerry Washington, Questlove, Tiffany Haddish, and Zendaya.
Watch Mary J. Blige’s Breakfast Club interview up top.
