DETROIT – We are getting closer to the biggest game of the year with the Los Angeles Rams, and the Cincinnati Bengals set to face off at Super Bowl LVI Sunday (Feb. 13) night right here on Local 4.
For some, the halftime show is the bigger draw than the actual game.
This year’s halftime performers include future Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer Eminem with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Deaf Detroit rapper Sean Forbes.
Forbes grew up in a family of musicians. His uncle even mixed for Bob Seger. At 54 Sound in Ferndale, Forbes crossed paths with one of his heroes, Eminem. Now the two will share a stage.
“I’m still pinching myself,” Forbes said. “It’s just incredible.” It did feel a bit like a dream when Forbes got the call to ask if he wanted to be part of the Super Bowl halftime show.
“I was like, ‘it’s not even debatable,’” Forbes said. “Number one, my entire music career has been influenced by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and especially the hometown boy Eminem; I said I’m in.”
He’ll also be alongside Wawa, who is also a deaf rapper. What they do is best described as an expressive sign language performance to the music that, yes, they hear through the heavy bass.
Forbes has played big shows before, including with Stevie Wonder also in Los Angeles, but this will be different.
“I’m going to take it all in, not to say I didn’t appreciate the other experiences, I did, but I was so living in the moment,” said Forbes. “I’m really excited about this.”
Yeah, he’s a role model for so many, but the 40-year-old rapper’s biggest cheerleaders are his family.
“My wife and kids dropped me off at the airport,” Forbes said. “My youngest was so full of pride she said, ‘“dad, go and kill it.’” “It was emotional, especially since we’ve been living in the pandemic. It’s been hard for a lot of us not performing, not being able to express who we are, hard to do it from the computer. To be able to do it on the stage with the cameras on stage, if you give it your all, there’s nothing better than that.”
You can watch Super Bowl LVI right here on Local 4. We will have coverage all day long, beginning with a special edition of Local 4 News Today at 6 a.m. and then kick off at 6:30 p.m.
