Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick said Saturday that hip-hop mogul Jay-Z’s recent freestyle at Yankee Stadium suggested the rapper remains troubled by their long-running dispute.
Kaepernick discussed Jay-Z during a conversation with sports journalist Jemele Hill in Detroit. The event took place at the National Black Footwear Forum.
Hill was interviewing Kaepernick about his forthcoming book, The Perilous Fight. Their conversation turned to Jay-Z and the NFL partnership that altered their relationship.
Jay-Z once supported Kaepernick’s activism after the quarterback began protesting racial injustice during the national anthem. Their relationship shifted after Roc Nation entered a partnership with the NFL.
The agreement included social justice initiatives and the league’s halftime entertainment. Kaepernick has questioned whether the partnership advanced the causes behind his protest.
Jay-Z later referenced Kaepernick during a freestyle at Yankee Stadium. The rapper also defended his business decisions and criticized people who have challenged them.
Former NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick Says Hip-Hop Mogul Jay-Z Is Still Troubled In Yankee Stadium Freestyle
Kaepernick said he was surprised that Jay-Z mentioned him years after the NFL agreement.
“I was very surprised by it,” Kaepernick said.
“I’m living rent-free there,” he added. “We are seven years post-him doing that deal.”
Kaepernick said Jay-Z’s decision to revisit the issue during an anniversary tour was revealing.
“While you’re doing the anniversary tour to celebrate your best work, that’s the thing that’s most top-of-mind for you,” he said.
“That’s pretty remarkable, how bothered he is by that,” Kaepernick continued. “It speaks to a guilty conscience around it.”
Kaepernick also recalled the backlash following Jay-Z’s NFL partnership. Critics accused the rapper of abandoning the protest movement.
“The response in the wake of him doing that deal was broadly people being like, ‘You sold the protest out, you sold us out,’” he said.
Kaepernick rejected comparisons between his treatment by the NFL and Jay-Z’s partnership with the league.
“The comparison of ‘I took a deal, he took a deal,’” he said, “typically the people you can’t control, you don’t do deals with.”
Kaepernick said the NFL blackballed him after his protests. He also said the league later approached him about a potential deal.
The comments indicate that tensions surrounding the NFL partnership remain unresolved. They also revive a broader debate over protest, commercial partnerships and racial justice.
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