SUPERBOWL - DR DRE with Mary J Blige Eve After Dark, 12823 S Avalon Boulevard, the centre of the this composite Compton Street, was a club which opened in 1979. It was able to stay open til 5am - being within the unincorporated area of LA County - and therefore outside the rules of LA city. As recounted in Straight Outta Compton, Andre ‘Dr Dre’ Young would spin records here for the local legendary World Class Wreckin’ Cru’ and the club had a backroom studio with an old four track desk on which Dre recorded Eazy E rapping N.W.A’s ’Boyz-N-the-Hood’ - arguably the first ‘reality rap’ track. It’s been described as "an anthem for the fatherless, brotherless, state-assaulted, heavily armed West Coast urban youth”, with lyrics that narrated a day in the life in this place at this time. One of the most moving moments in the show is arguably Mary J’s performance of No More Drama: You get the sense that all of the performers - many of them Compton residents - would join Mary J in her plea for ‘no more pain’: And many may feel the same exasperation that she manifests by falling to the ground at the end of her performance. The familiar LA sound of a helicopter overhead leads us from fallen Mary J to an army of men bent low in a grid of cardboard boxes. Cardboard architecture on the street is an apt evocation of LA in 2022...however the tone here is also celebratory as these boxes are branded, along with their inhabitants costume sashes: ‘DRE DAY”: here Kendrick Lamar is a contemporary artist paying tribute to the generation that precedes him. The choreography and stage direction is by the legendary choreographer and director Fatima Robinson. Many of the central ideas of the show were co-conceived with Dave Free - Kendrick’s creative director. Bruce Rogers is the veteran Super Bowl production designer who masterminded the design to be able to appear within 8 minutes and disappear within 6 minutes. The work is filmed by the world’s leading live cinematographer Hamish Hamilton and lit by Al Gurdon. Costumes by Lila Nikole. Screens by Drew Findley. Intro and Outro film by Good Company. Exec producers: Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon, Roc Nation. event production: Dave Meyers