Why Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Is Behind Selecting the Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present Performer

After Lil Wayne expressed disappointment over not being chosen as subsequent yr’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present performer in his hometown of New Orleans, questions have been raised about how that call is made.

Tremendous Bowl halftime producer Jesse Collins spoke to Selection in September about the subject material and defined that Jay-Z makes the ultimate name relating to who takes the stage on the large recreation, the place this yr the Philadelphia Eagles will tackle the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.

“It’s a call that Jay makes,” he mentioned. “Since we’ve been onboard with that present, he’s made it yearly, and it’s been superb. He’s at all times picked proper.”

Jay-Z and Roc Nation entered a partnership with the NFL in 2019 that tasked him with being the league’s “dwell music leisure strategist” and to help with social-justice reform initiatives.

On Sept. 7, NFL, Apple Music, Roc Nation and Kendrick Lamar introduced that the “Not Like Us” rapper can be performing on the 2025 Apple Music Tremendous Bowl LIX Halftime present on Feb. 9 on the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

Lamar, 37, gained 5 Grammys on Sunday, Feb. 2 together with tune of the yr, file of the yr and finest rap songs. In January, it was introduced that SZA can be becoming a member of him onstage.

Talking to the choice, Collins mentioned Lamar will certainly placed on an important present.

“We love Wayne,” he mentioned. “There’s at all times Vegas odds on who’s going to get to carry out it. However I feel we’re going to do an incredible present with Kendrick, and I feel everyone’s going to like the halftime present. I do know Kendrick goes to work exceptionally exhausting to ship an incredible present.”

After the official announcement, the “Empire State of Thoughts” rapper, 55, launched an announcement.

“Kendrick Lamar is actually a once-in-a-generation artist and performer. His deep love for hip-hop and tradition informs his creative imaginative and prescient,” he mentioned.

Jay-Z added, “He has an unparalleled means to outline and affect tradition globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his influence can be felt for years to return.”

Lamar was beforehand tapped as a halftime performer in 2022, becoming a member of Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent for Dr. Dre’s star-studded efficiency for Tremendous Bowl LVI.

Wayne, 42, expressed disappointment over the choice in an Instagram video posted days after the announcement in September.

“To begin with, I wanna say forgive me for the delay,” the “How one can Love” rapper mentioned. “I needed to get power sufficient to do that with out breaking. I’mma say thanks to each voice, each opinion, all of the care, all of the love and the help on the market. Your phrases became to arms and held me up after I tried to fall again.”

“It damage an entire lot,” he added. “I blame myself for not being mentally ready for a letdown and for mechanically mentally placing myself in that place like anyone instructed me that was my place.”

“However I assumed there was nothing higher than that spot and that stage and that platform in my metropolis, so it damage,” he continued, later thanking his “f—ing superb followers” for his or her help.

Months after Jay-Z’s Roc Nation picked Lamar to headline the Halftime present, in December, a lady alleged that in a civil lawsuit that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her in 2000 when she was 13 years previous.

Jay-Z, whose actual identify is Shawn Carter, posted a prolonged response on Roc Nation’s X account, denying the allegations and calling them “heinous.” It was dominated later that month that the accuser can stay nameless.

Days after information broke relating to the lawsuit, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned that the allegations would not have an effect on the NFL’s relationship with Roc Nation.

“We’re conscious of the civil allegations and Jay-Z’s actually sturdy response to that,” Goodell following the league’s winter conferences in Texas. “We all know the litigation is going on now. From our standpoint, our relationship just isn’t altering with them, together with our preparations for the following Tremendous Bowl.”