Jay-Z selecting himself to be the headliner of the Super Bowl LXI halftime show isn’t the biggest issue we should all have with this production that will be watched by approximately one-third of Americans and broadcast in maybe 190 countries.
The audacity of Roc Nation, which Jay-Z founded and co-owns, picking Jay-Z to be the next Super Bowl’s top-billed performer is something we all could get over.
Jay-Z simply searched for the best available act while looking into his mirror and selected the guy staring him in the face.
Rapper Jay-Z attends a game between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles during a game at Yankee Stadium on September 25, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/Getty Images) (Alex Trautwig/Getty Images)
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The NFL equivalent would be Tom Brady picking himself as the greatest quarterback of all time. Or former general managers John Elway and Ozzie Newsome drafting themselves to play for their teams.
It’s odd.
But Jay-Z’s selection of Jay-Z is the least of the issues this move poses for the NFL, which outsourced to him and Roc Nation the halftime show selection process in 2019.
The problem, more than 99 of them, is what the NFL and Roc Nation are telling us about their comfort level with the N-word, the devaluing of women, violence, and presenting all those in one profanity-laced package to a worldwide audience.
Jay-Z walked on the field ahead of the match between Cote D’Ivoire and Ecuador. (Ezra Shaw – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
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And this is where we get to the bottom line: Make sure your kids are not in front of the television at halftime on Feb. 14.
As a non-Jay-Z fan – yeah, I’m the one – I relied on ChatGPT and Gemini to bring me up to speed on the legacy rapper’s songs and lyrics.
It’s only a mild exaggeration to say both AI platforms blushed as they filled the prompt with the titles and lyrics Jay-Z has made his billions on since the late 1980s when he got his start.
OutKick and Fox News Digital editors actually had to discuss what was OK to share in this column that would not stretch the boundary of good taste and editorial norms.
So here goes:
President Barack Obama stands on stage with rapper Jay-Z and musician Bruce Springsteen at an election campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio. (Corbis via Getty Images)
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Jay-Z uses the n-word. A lot. It’s like a punctuation with this guy.
He uses the f-word in a dozen of his songs – either in the lyrics or, in a couple of instances, the title.
He demeans women. He calls them “b—-es” and “h–s” as a group. And uses the appropriate singular word for each when addressing just one. And, again, this occurs in his song titles and lyrics.
Jay-Z also isn’t shy rapping about male genitals and female genitals, using the d-word for one and the p-word for the other.
Vulgarity and profanity are rife in Jay-Z’s work.
None of this, by the way, has hurt Jay-Z’s business. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, he has sold between 33.5-36.3 million albums and 34 million singles in the United States.
But that’s not the point, is it?
The point is that on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL is paying Jay-Z to bring his colorful songs and lyrics to his largest audience ever. It is reasonable to believe many of the people that will be tuning in to watch a football game that Sunday have never heard even one line of a Jay-Z song.
So what happens next?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addresses the media during the Super Bowl Winning Team Head Coach and MVP Press Conference at the Mandalay Bay North Convention Center on Feb. 12, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
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Is the artist going to tone down or change his language? Is he going to avoid certain songs, such as “F— All Nite,” or “F—WithMeYouKnowIGotIt,” or “Money, Cash, H–s?”
Or is Jay-Z, who hired Jay-Z, going to be fine with Jay-Z being Jay-Z?
Did I mention that Super Bowl LXI will stream on Disney+ as well as ABC and ESPN?
Whatever happens, the NFL is complicit. Whatever words blare out of your home’s television speakers on Super Bowl Sunday during the halftime show are NFL approved by proxy.
And you thought you were just getting treated to championship football.
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