At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Jay-Z was just one of the many celebrities in attendance. However, unlike most of his A-list peers, he was there in a capacity far greater than just a football fan.
For all the context, we first have to rewind to 2019 when it was announced that Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, had entered into a deal to become the NFL’s Live Music Entertainment Strategist.
The move came as part of the NFL’s Inspire Change Initiative, and it was reported at the time that Jay-Z’s role would center around the Super Bowl halftime show and contributing to the league’s activism campaign.
Of course, a vital aspect of all this is that Roc Nation’s partnership with the NFL came shortly after the league was widely criticized for its treatment of former San Francisco 49ers player, Colin Kaepernick.
Starting in 2016, Colin was the first player to peacefully protest racial injustice and police brutality in Black America by kneeling during "The Star-Spangled Banner" before kickoff.
As more players started to follow his lead, their silent protests ignited a nationwide movement and a firestorm of debate, resulting in President Donald Trump publicly blasting Colin and later saying that he thought NFL players who participated should be fired.
As the outrage became more intense, the NFL seemingly did very little to support or protect Black players, and instead announced that teams would be fined if their players continued to protest on the field.
Around this time, Jay-Z was among those to publicly support Black NFL players and call out the way they were being condemned and ostracized for peacefully protesting against racial injustice.
“I want y’all to understand, when people are kneeling and putting their fists up in the air and doing what they’re doing, it’s not about the flag,” he said during a Miami concert in 2017. “It’s about justice. It’s about injustice. And that’s not a black or white thing, it’s a human issue.”
However, it soon became clear Jay-Z’s focus was to make improvements in the areas where the league had previously fallen short.
“The NFL has a great big platform, and it has to be all-inclusive,” the rap legend said shortly after the deal was announced. “They were willing to do some things, to make some changes, that we can do some good.”
So, fast-forward to today, and this year’s Super Bowl marked the fifth year that Jay-Z has been one of the key people involved. And in that time, a lot has changed about the way the halftime show is produced.
In case you didn't know, Jay-Z — who has never headlined the Super Bowl himself — has previously aired his frustrations with the way the halftime show is organized.
Memorably, on his and Beyoncé’s 2017 track “Apeshit,” Jay raps: “I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don't need you / Every night we in the end zone, tell the NFL we in stadiums too.”
A few years after the song dropped, he provided the full context by revealing during an interview with the New York Times that he turned down an offer to headline the halftime show because the organizers specifically requested that he share the stage with Kanye West and Rihanna to perform their song, “Run This Town.”
Speaking to the outlet, Jay explained that his issue wasn’t with Kanye and Rihanna, but rather the fact that the NFL was “telling someone that they're going to do the halftime show contingent on who they bring.”
“I said, ‘No, you get me.’ That is not how you go about it,” he recalled. “I said forget it. It was a principle thing.”
So, when he stepped in to take charge of the Super Bowl halftime show from 2020 onwards, one of the first things Jay set about changing was how the headliner is picked.
In an August 2019 press conference, he shared more insight into how the halftime performer had been decided by the league up until then, describing the old process as “fractured.”
“You take four artists and everyone thinks they're playing the Super Bowl. It's almost like this interview process,” he said, adding that when the headliner is finally selected, the other three artists are left feeling slighted.
“That's not even good math. After three years, nine people are upset and three people play,” he said. “Ain't that many superstars in the world. You're gonna run out of people that want to play. I just think the process could've been more definite.”
In the same conference, Jay-Z set out a new and more streamlined way of selecting the halftime performer by simply approaching one person at a time and letting them take full control of the show.
“You pick someone, you speak to them, you let them have it, and then you move on,” he said of the new strategy. “And I think that, you know, let the artist be the artist.”
Since then, Jay has stayed true to his word, resulting in some of the most iconic halftime shows in history — putting inclusivity and diversity at the forefront.
The first show under Roc Nation and Jay-Z’s management was Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s joint performance in Miami in 2020, which saw the two icons come together with the help of Bad Bunny and J Balvin to celebrate Latin culture.
In 2021, it was The Weeknd's turn to take to the stag
