Goodie Mob - "Dirty South" (forgotten song)

Super Bowl LIII concluded yesterday, and while many might say it was a "boring" game because it was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history, as a Va Tech fan I've learned to appreciate defensive struggles.  The halftime show, on the other hand, well... that was pretty boring.  Not necessarily bad, but stiff and uninspired. 

It certainly had all the individual pieces: a bland, popular, corporate rock band ("we want someone like Coldplay, but not quite as edgy...") with two guest appearances by rappers with regional ties as well as underground cred, a SpongeBob interlude, a drumline, a choir, a 70s Cadillac convertible, lasers and fireworks, and lots of Adam Levine beefcake.  It's like a machine learning algorithm had processed all the previous halftime shows and then synthesized the best elements into a whole that filled the requisite 14 minutes, but lacked a unifying vision or theme.  In trying to appeal to all and offend none, the result was a sterile simulacrum of a halftime show.

The NFL had trouble lining up performers, given the ongoing situation with Colin Kaepernick.  Maroon 5 was a safe choice, and the choice of Big Boi and Travis Scott for guest spots (neither of which was particularly well-integrated with the Maroon 5 set) was the smallest possible nod to Atlanta's burgeoning music scene.

With that, I choose Goodie Mob's song "Dirty South" as this year's Super Bowl song.  "Dirty South" is from their 1995 debut LP "Soul Food", and is the first known use of the phrase "Dirty South", a sub-genre of hip hop, with Atlanta at its epicenter, that emerged in the early- to mid-90s as separate and distinct from NYC-based and LA-based hip hop.  Big Boi, then a member of Atlanta-based Outkast, guested on both "Dirty South" and last night's appearance, thereby provided the tie in to something more substantive than Maroon 5.  Goodie Mob is still active, with four members also involved in other projects, of whom Cee-Lo is the most recognizable to general audiences. 

Let's be honest: a Goodie Mob / Outkast halftime show, opening with "Dirty South", including radio hits like "Hey Ya!" and "Forget You"), with Maroon 5 as the guest artist, say with a reinterpreted, rap-crossover version of "Harder to Breathe" plus a duet with Cee-Lo on "Crazy" would have been edgy... and great.

Goodie Mob - "Dirty South"

Maroon 5,  Travis Scott, Big Boi - "Full halftime show"