Key Takeaways
- Nelly said on Carmelo Anthony's 7PM in Brooklyn that his second Super Bowl set, built around "Shake Your Tail Feather," was overshadowed by Janet Jackson's 2004 wardrobe malfunction.
- Nelly said he was running back to the tunnel with his dancers during the moment and never saw it happen in real time, noting MTV staffers pacing backstage with red faces.
- Janet Jackson took the worst of the fallout after the Feb. 1, 2004 Houston halftime show, with her music pulled from Viacom outlets and a $550,000 FCC fine on CBS later thrown out in 2011.
- Nelly called the Super Bowl the biggest stage "bar none," said he "went ham anyway," and predicted Jay-Z will "do a great show" at an upcoming halftime.
Nelly is looking back at his second Super Bowl halftime performance and how one of the most controversial moments in television history caused his set to be largely forgotten.
During a recent appearance on Carmelo Anthony’s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, the St. Louis rapper reflected on performing at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, which became infamous after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction involving Justin Timberlake.
“I had the privilege of doing two Super Bowls. But everybody don’t remember the second one, but the second one came off of Tail Feather,” Nelly said, referencing his hit “Shake Ya Tailfeather.” “We went and did that one, but we kind of we got overshadowed.”
The performance took place on Feb. 1, 2004, at Houston’s Reliant Stadium, with Jackson headlining a show that also featured Nelly, Jessica Simpson, Diddy, and Kid Rock.
Timberlake later joined Jackson for a surprise performance of “Rock Your Body,” during which he pulled away part of her costume, briefly exposing her breast to millions of viewers live.
Nelly revealed that he didn’t actually witness the incident because he had already finished his performance and was making his way off the field.
“The sets are changing so fast, right? So you know we just did what we did, you know you running back towards the tunnel with the dancers and everybody,” he explained.
The rapper recalled hearing a sudden commotion behind him and attempting to turn around to see what happened.
“And then you hear in the back… ‘OH MY GOD’… So you try running back out, but by then everything is coming your way cause that shit go on and off fast. So I actually did not see it in real time.”
Although he missed the moment itself, Nelly said the reaction backstage made it clear that something had gone terribly wrong.
“You just see people from MTV just pacing,” he recalled. “And it was a lot of white folks. They were red as hell… I ain’t never seen so much red, man. Them faces was red back there.”
The incident sparked widespread controversy, with Jackson facing significant professional backlash. Her music and videos were removed from rotation on several Viacom-owned outlets, while CBS was initially fined $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission. That fine was later overturned in 2011.
Timberlake faced criticism for receiving comparatively less backlash and eventually issued another public apology to Jackson in 2021.
Nelly previously addressed the controversy during a 2021 interview with SiriusXM’s Shade 45, saying Jackson “had to kind of take that bullet alone” and that “not everybody who was on stage hung in there.”
Despite the controversy overshadowing his performance, Nelly said he still enjoyed the experience and understood the significance of appearing on one of the world’s biggest stages.
“Yeah. But at that time, you know, your boy was still up, so it didn’t matter. I went ham anyway,” he said.
Nelly also emphasized the career benefits of performing at the Super Bowl, describing it as the biggest stage “bar none” and pointing to the boost in album sales that artists can experience afterward.
