During the NFL offseason last year, as the league continued to deal with its public relations fallout from the Colin Kaepernick saga, Jay Z and Roc Nation signed onto a partnership to help set the future of its marquee non-football event, the Super Bowl halftime show, and work with it on social justice initiatives.
Some naysayers, like the Carolina Panthers’ Eric Reid, voiced skepticism about the agreement. Jay-Z, like many, aligned themselves with Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback who was essentially blacklisted from the league after declining to stand for the singing of the National Anthem before games.
The agreement with the N.F.L. is multi-faceted, and includes an initiative called Inspire Change that focuses on “education and economic advancement, police and community relations, and criminal justice reform” and $100 million dedicated to social justice outreach groups over the next 10 years. Still, the deal has continued to be a source of criticism for Jay-Z throughout the season.
This weekend, as final preparations were underway for Super Bowl LV in Miami, Jay-Z gave an interview with the New York Times in which he argued that the greatest chance for change would come from working with the organization.
“No one is saying he hasn’t been done wrong,” he said of the still teamless Kaepernick. “He was done wrong. I would understand if it was three months ago. But it was three years ago and someone needs to say, ‘What do we do now — because people are still dying?’”
It remains unclear how much the N.F.L. is paying Roc Nation as part of the deal. “We didn’t say, ‘Let’s go make some money off the N.F.L.'” the Times quotes Jay-Z on the matter.
The musician and businessman did point to his own observations of well-meaning but perhaps otherwise unaware white business people like Michael Rubin and Robert K. Kraft who were galvanized by Roc Nation’s efforts to aid their client Meek Mill after he received a harsh sentence on a probation violation.
“When one of us gets signed, it doesn’t end our connection to the ’hood or the streets,” he said about his drive toward advocacy. “Our lives are still there, our cousin still needs a lawyer, our mother still can’t make the rent. This is real life.”