The Hip-Hop Halftime Show Was an Overdue Triumph

One of the incredible things about hip-hop is that a quick song can feel as grand and sweeping as an album, or a novel, or a galaxy. Great rappers do a generous thing—give listeners a trove of phrases to obsess over, of inflections to imitate, of messages to absorb, and of observations to steal. When the music works, it seems effortless and impossible at once.

So the challenge facing the 2022 Super Bowl —to command the nation’s attention without the first halftime show in which hip-hop played the starring role. Rather than shying away from the enormity of the assignment, the performers pulled off a dazzling, almost overwhelming, celebration.