AceShowbiz - Snoop Dogg had some kind of a pregame warmup. The "Drop It Like It's Hot" hitmaker, who is also known as the most notable cannabis advocate, was caught smoking marijuana before his epic performance at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show.

Just minutes ahead of his performance alongside Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Eminem, the 50-year-old rapper was caught secretly smoking what appeared to be a large joint near the stage. A clip of him sneaking a toke before taking the stage with his fellow hip-hop legends has been circulating on social media.

Sports broadcaster Rafa El Alcalde was the first to publish the clip via Twitter on Monday, February 14. "Warming up before going on stage for the Halftime Show," read the caption of the video, which has garnered nearly 6 million views and has been shared more than 48 thousand times.

The video left online critics debating whether it's right to smoke weed at the event. "That's the reason why the @NFL never had rappers performing at half time before…," one Twitter user commented, while another opined, "Ya'll actually warmed up ? Which part ? The Music or the dis-respect part ? Guess that's part of serving your Country , Protecting the rights for those to dis-respect your service."

While some social media users are criticizing him, Snoop found support in his loyal fans. "People gonna make stupid comments, but it's legal there and how many times have we seen performers downing beers on stage, he should have walked out ripping on a blunt, no difference at all than drinking a beer on stage," said one fan.

Meanwhile, others blamed the camera guy for recording Snoop's "private moment." One fan penned, "Every Super Bowl has a feed that is for the organizers to help with production, but which is not available to the public. Why would someone who has access to this feed show a private moment to the general public? I hope the guy who leaked this gets fired." A separate Twitter user chimed in, "Whoever filmed this..you're a piece of s**t."

The Super Bowl halftime show was held in Inglewood's SoFi stadium on Sunday. The show first opened with Dr. Dre and Snoop delivering "The Next Episode". The two later lit up the crowd with Tupac Shakur's "California Love" before 50 Cent made a surprise appearance by performing "In Da Club".

Mary then took the stage, sporting a metallic white bodysuit and high boots. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul rocked a rendition of "Family Affair" while being accompanied by several dancers in similar looks.

Following her up was Kendrick, who stole the show with his socially charged single "Alright". Eminem later rapped his Oscar-winning single "Lose Yourself" with Anderson .Paak playing the drums.

Having finished off his track, Eminem took a knee as Dr. Dre began performing "Still Dre". Although the NFL reportedly told the "Not Afraid" hitmaker not to kneel, he did it anyway to support former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his fight against injustice.

Toward the end of the show, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Eminem, Mary, Kendrick and Fiddy gathered to one stage in the field while Dr. Dre continued rhyming his 1999 hit. They were joined by hundreds of dancers who made a circle in the field.