Nov 4, 20263 min read

Wu-Tang Clan Takes Thanksgiving Halftime Stage

The Lions hand their biggest regular season stage to a group that built its own universe, and Eminem is the one who made the call.

OMYGOTTI

Toronto hip-hop artist | 730K+ Facebook

A Holiday Stage Built For Legends

Thanksgiving football in Detroit is about to sound very different. The Detroit Lions announced on November 1 that Wu-Tang Clan will headline the halftime show at the 87th annual Thanksgiving Day Classic on Thursday, November 26, when the Chicago Bears visit Ford Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Eastern and CBS carries the game nationally, which means the Clan gets one of the largest non playoff audiences American football offers.

The show is powered by Verizon and actor and singer Antonio Cipriano will perform the national anthem. For a group from Staten Island that once sold its records out of a fiercely independent system, a network halftime stage on a national holiday is not a nostalgia booking. It is the mainstream admitting, again, where the culture was built.

Eminem Makes The Call Close To Home

The booking comes from inside Detroit hip hop. Eminem and his longtime manager Paul Rosenberg, the president of Shady Records, serve as executive producers of the Thanksgiving halftime show and select the talent. This is the second year of their multi year partnership with the Lions, and Rosenberg explained the pick by pointing to fandom that goes back to the early nineties, shared by a whole generation of Detroit football fans.

Last Thanksgiving the pair brought in Detroit rocker Jack White, and Eminem stepped out for a surprise turn during the set. Going from Jack White to Wu-Tang in back to back years shows the range of the brief. The producers are treating the halftime slot like a statement about the city and the music that shaped them, not like a safe variety segment.

A Month That Keeps Stacking Honours

November is already loaded for the group before a single halftime note is played. Wu-Tang Clan will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 14, less than two weeks before the Detroit show. The Lions also note that the performance arrives as the group wraps its global farewell tour, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber, which gives the halftime stage the feel of a victory lap rather than a comeback attempt.

Starting today, November 4, SiriusXM runs The Wu-Tang Clan Channel on its app through December 1, presented by LL COOL J and his Rock The Bells Radio. SiriusXM says the pop up channel carries classic anthems, deep album cuts, solo projects, live performances and exclusive interviews, and every Wednesday in November on Rock The Bells Radio, channel 43, becomes a Wu Wednesday. The celebration also ties to Wu-Tang Clan Day in New York City, which honours the November 9, 1993 release of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

Why This Booking Lands Different

Plenty of legacy acts get trotted out for heritage moments. This one lands different because the pieces around it are live, not archival. A Hall of Fame induction, a farewell tour wrapping, a dedicated radio channel launching today and a halftime show chosen by Eminem all point the same way. The industry is not remembering Wu-Tang, it is catching up to a catalogue that never actually left.

My take: put the Clan on that Ford Field stage and let the chessboxin era teach a holiday audience something. Thanksgiving has a new headliner, and for once the legends are not the opening act for anybody.