Jay-Z will be teaming up with NFL to advise them when choosing their headline acts for next year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
The 49-year-old recently signed a contract, seeing him as the live music entertainment strategist, with his music and sports company Roc Nation.
And now the rapper will have a say on the glamorous ceremony, in hopes to change their ‘fractured’ process of picking the performers.
He told reporters at a press conference in New York City: ‘You take four artists and everyone thinks they’re playing the Super Bowl, it’s almost like this interview process.
‘And so I pick Chuck, the other three people get upset. So, that’s not even good math. After three years, nine people upset and three people played.
‘I think the process should have been a little more definitive. … You speak to someone and you let them have it and you move on. And I think then let the artists be artists.’
The event made headlines in previous years when Colin Kaepernick took a stand in 2016 and started to kneel during the National Anthem to highlight racial inequality.
Since then, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has supposedly been supported by Rihanna who is claimed to have turned down performing at last year’s show.
Organisers allegedly told US Weekly: ‘The NFL and Fox really wanted Rihanna to be next year’s performer in Atlanta.’
They added: ‘They offered it to her, but she said no because of the kneeling controversy. She doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance. She supports Colin Kaepernick.’
Addressing the controversy of his new deal, Jay-Z explained how he hopes his partnership is the next step following the protest.
He said: ‘I think that we forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice, so in that case, this is a success — this is the next thing.
‘There’s two parts of protest: the protest, and then there’s a company or individual saying, “I hear you, what do we do next?”‘
The father-of-three added: ‘For me it’s about actionable items, what are we gonna do about it?’
This year’s show was headlined by Maroon 5 with appearances from Travis Scott and Big Boi.
Talking about the acts, the 99 Problems hitmaker said: ‘Last year, [Travis] had a monster record — Sicko Mode — and he’s playing on a stage with an M on it.
‘I don’t see any reason for him to play second fiddle to anyone that year and that was my problem.’
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