Mary J. Blige’s recent interview with The Breakfast Club revealed that the NFL repeatedly asked what her outfit was going to be like for the Super Bowl LVI halftime show.
Blige spoke on many topics during the interview, including self-love, her work on an upcoming album with Dr. Are, and her upcoming memoir. During the taping, she was asked if she was prohibited by the NFL from doing anything during the Super Bowl, and she revealed that although they didn’t place any restrictions on her, the NFL did check on her outfit a few times.
“No, they just kept coming and checking my outfit,” she said. “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 knew of the betting sites that took bets on what her outfit would look like. “That’s good! That’s fun,” she replied. “That’s beautiful.”
In a separate discussion with Hot 97 studio, she spoke about the pearl-clutching response that came from more conservative viewers over the halftime performance that also included Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and 50 Cent, saying “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].”
During the Breakfast Club interview, Blige spoke briefly about how she became a part of the 50 Cent-produced Power Book II: Ghost, and that she and Dre have started working on an album that she hopes will be entirely produced by him.
She also discussed retirement, to which she says she’s thought about retiring “soon.” She admitted that she js stressed, but added she’s got “a lot going on,” so she hasn’t been able to decide on when she’s going to retire.
