Lil Jon says performing at the Super Bowl 58 halftime show, where he joined headliner Usher along with Ludacris for their 2004 hit “Yeah!,” took a lot of work.
“It was quite a process to do,” Jon tells XXL of putting the show together. “It was a lot of hard work. It was a lot of figuring out the proper setlists.”
The Atlanta native says that they must’ve gone through “like 180 different versions of the setlists by the time we got to the end.”
The final list, which was comprised of some of Usher’s top hits, also included Jon’s “Turn Down for What.” He performed some of the song from a turned-up crowd on the field before joining Usher and Luda onstage.
Now Jon’s ready to turn down a bit. He told XXL he’ll be releasing a new meditation album called Total Meditation, expected February 16. It’s a 10-track project Jon says should help “relieve anxiety, boost focus and find peace.”
“I turned 50, started going through a lot of things. Started going through a divorce, I’m separated now, and all the emotions from the divorce and all that process was really getting to me. So, I found I had to start to go within to calm myself,” Jon says.
Anybody listening to Usher? A lot of us are, apparently.
Thanks to his Super Bowl 58 halftime show, where Usher played some of his biggest hits and welcomed a few special guests like H.E.R., Alicia Keys and Ludacris, his musical catalog saw a rise in streams.
Immediately following the performance, Spotify logged a near 550% increase in streams of Usher’s music.
Here’s a look at a few of his past songs, all of which were part of his set list, that were downloaded at a major rate Sunday night:
“Caught Up” +2000%
“U Don’t Have to Call” +1,200%
“Love in This Club” ft. Young Jeezy +1,100%
“Bad Girl” +1,050%
“Confessions Part II” +900%
“U Got It Bad” +715%
“My Boo” with Alicia Keys +690%
“Yeah!” ft. Lil Jon and Ludacris +520%
“Superstar” +350%
After Usher’s viral, star-studded performance at Super Bowl 58, which CBS reports was the most-watched game in history, bids came in from artists who believe they should be next in line for the big gig.
One of the artists, T-Pain, says a halftime show featuring his many hits is a no-brainer.
“What If?…” reads a Super Bowl graphic, alongside a picture of T-Pain, that was shared to his Instagram Monday.
“I do got the hits,” he captioned the post.
He also shared footage of an interview with Shannon Sharpe, who asked him if he’d be willing to take the halftime stage.
“You in?” asked Sharpe, to which T-Pain responded, “Absolutely. Why would I not do that?”
T-Pain’s post included a final image of a fan comment on X, formerly Twitter, that reads, “Not gonna lie, I think we need a T-Pain Super Bowl halftime show.”
Another hip-hop star hoping for a chance to take the stage is Lil Wayne. And, considering that the NFL has announced New Orleans, Wayne’s hometown, as the location for Super Bowl 59, it might just make sense, Wayne thinks.
“I will not lie to you, I have not got a call or nothing,” he said in a recent appearance on the 4Hunnid podcast. “But we all praying. We praying. We keeping our fingers crossed. I’m working hard. I’ma make sure this next album and everything I do is killer. I wanna just make it hard for them not to holler at the boy.”
Speculation surrounding which hip-hop star will be next to perform at the Super Bowl stems from Jay-Z’s involvement with the NFL and the halftime show.
