On Monday the NFL named Jay-Z as the headliner for this season’s Super Bowl half-time show.
asserted
NFL → name → show
His company, Roc Nation, produces the show under a 2019 deal reportedly worth $5m a year, and the agreement was extended for another five years in 2024.
uncertain
agreement → produce → 2024
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said his one request when the partnership began was that Jay-Z “take the stage himself one day“.
asserted
Z → say → stage
Goodell’s wish makes total sense: Jay-Z is the perfect choice for the half-time show, and that’s not a compliment.
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that → make → show
The NFL wants a shill who can still pass for a rebel, and nobody in American music plays that part better than Jay-Z.
Jay-Z’s origin story has become an American legend.
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story → want → Z.
Years before he sold records, Shawn Carter grew up in Brooklyn’s Marcy Houses and sold crack as a teenager.
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Carter → sell → teenager
When labels passed on him, he hawked CDs from the trunk of his car on college campuses.
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he → pass → campuses
Then he put out Reasonable Doubt in 1996 on his own label, Roc-A-Fella.
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he → put → label
“Nobody would sign me,” he said later.
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he → sign → me
The money followed.
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money → follow → ?
In 2013, he performed Picasso Baby, a track about the paintings he wanted to own, for six hours straight at a Chelsea gallery, and Marina Abramović joined him.
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Abramović → perform → him
By the time of The Story of OJ in 2017, he was handing out financial advice.
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he → hand → advice
Forbes puts his fortune at about $2.8bn.
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Forbes → put → 2.8bn
He raps for the rich now, a Black oligarch who seems about as cut off from the rest of the country as the rest of the billionaire class.
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who → rap → class
His bootstraps story mirrors the platitudes Americans have been told for decades – work hard and you’ll get what you deserve.
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you → mirror → what
On paper, he’s the perfect avatar for America’s polluted ideas of capitalism.
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he → ’ → capitalism
But the country Jay-Z is rapping to is in terrible shape.
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Z → rap → shape
How many of us can relate to his lyrics in 2026?
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many → relate → 2026
Gas and grocery prices have rocketed.
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prices → rocket → ?
SNAP enrollment fell more than 13% in a year as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act tightened the rules.
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Act → fall → rules
Only 63% of adults say they could cover a surprise $400 expense.
uncertain
they → say → expense
You can see why the NFL would use Jay-Z as someone who can give the appearance that the league, with its huge conservative fanbase, is actually progressive.
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league → see → fanbase
He wore Colin Kaepernick’s jersey on Saturday Night Live in 2017 after the quarterback had sparked a protest movement against police brutality by kneeling for the national anthem.
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quarterback → wear → anthem
Jay-Z then dedicated The Story of OJ to Kaepernick onstage.
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Z → dedicate → Kaepernick
A year later, on Apeshit, he bragged about turning down the Super Bowl and told the NFL it needed him more than he needed it.
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he → brag → it
Things would soon change.
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Things → change → ?
In June 2019, Forbes named him hip-hop’s first billionaire.
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Forbes → name → June
A few months later, Roc Nation signed its deal with the NFL.
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Nation → sign → NFL
But at the news conference announcing his NFL partnership, Jay-Z no longer appeared as receptive to Kaepernick’s approach to protest.
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Z → announce → protest
“We’ve moved past kneeling,” he said.
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he → move → kneeling
That same year, Kaepernick settled his collusion grievance against the league after he said his protests had effectively ended his playing career.
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protests → settle → career
The 2019 deal also put Roc Nation to work on Inspire Change, the league’s social justice initiative.
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deal → put → Change
It’s safe to say that Kaepernick was unimpressed.
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Kaepernick → ’ → ?
“I just want you to know, one, you’re serving the culture up to a bunch of racists and, two, they don’t care about you,” Kaepernick later recalled saying to Jay-Z.
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Kaepernick → want → Z.
“You’re the music guy to them.
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You → ’re → them
They quite literally need a Black face – and have said as much.”
Seven years later, Jay-Z is still battling Kaepernick, the man who says he was blackballed by the NFL.
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he → need → NFL
This summer, Jay-Z linked up with Target, which had been boycotted by many Black customers after it rolled back its diversity and inclusion policies.
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it → link → policies
Kaepernick, on the other hand, said he would not allow his memoir to be sold at any of the chain’s stores.
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memoir → say → stores
At a concert in July, Jay-Z rapped that Kaepernick had allowed himself to be silenced by signing his grievance with the NFL (sources close to Kaepernick have denied this).
asserted
sources → rap → this
“Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him, but along with that check you have to sign a non-disparagement.
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you → take → disparagement
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
