Disgraced former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became an infamous figure in America when he first kneeled during the National Anthem in a preseason game over three years ago.
Many prominent celebrities supported Kaepernick’s disgusting protest and many NFL colleagues actually joined in the protest.
And one rap star who emulated Kaepernick’s protest had this crazy thing to say after protesting the National Anthem.
Jay-Z and Beyonce have a bizarre relationship with the NFL. At first, they supported Colin Kaepernick’s infamous protest three years ago when he kneeled during the National Anthem before every game started.
The NFL reportedly reached out to Jay-Z and Beyonce to perform during the Super Bowl halftime show and they both turned down the opportunity, which was reportedly some sort of solidarity with Kaepernick.
Kaepernick sued the NFL and the 32 teams of the league for “collusion” to keep him out of the league but ended up reaching a deal for an undisclosed amount of money.
But things took a wild turn when Jay-Z’s RocNation formed a partnership with the NFL to promote “social justice causes” and also oversee the Super Bowl halftime show. It’s unclear whether Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were part of this venture.
Many criticized Jay-Z for forming this partnership and even Kaepernick believed it was a slap in the face.
Maybe even Jay-Z, his supposed friend, was exhausted with the Kaepernick-NFL debacle.
However, things took a wild turn again when a video circulated of the power music couple sitting during Demi Lovato’s performance of the National Anthem before the Super Bowl. Of course, people speculated that this was a protest, like Kaepernick’s.
But on Tuesday night following the Super Bowl, Page Six reported that Jay-Z said this characterization was off.
At a Columbia University lecture series a moderator asked him whether sitting was “meant to convey a signal.”
He said, “It actually wasn’t—sorry. I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.”
The reason for his sitting, he said, was practical: “What happened was, we got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super-nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t. So we get there and we immediately jump into artist mode. Now I’m really just looking at the show. Did the mic start? Was it too low to start?”
Artist mode? How does that have anything to do with standing to respect our country’s song? Does being in “artist mode” somehow make them exempt from respecting all of those that have given their lives so you could appreciate a Super Bowl?
That’s an absurd notion.
To think this wasn’t a publicity stunt is delusional. Jay-Z and Beyonce are two of the most powerful people in music and there’s no question they couldn’t afford box-seats at a Super Bowl. They’re so famous that they’ll get mobbed by fans so it makes sense they would want that in order to avoid an incident.
They sat in the stands with everybody else for a reason. It was likely a PR stunt to protest so they could consequently deny it. It was all staged and “artist mode” isn’t an excuse.
