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JAY-Z Threatened To End NFL Partnership For Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show

Source: Vivien Killilea / Getty

According to Snoop Dogg, JAY-Z tested Roger Goodell’s gangster to make sure Super Bowl LVI’s Hip-Hop inspired Pepsi Halftime show did happen.

Speaking with Tidal’s Elliott Wilson, the new owner of Death Row Records, revealed that God MC threatened to end the partnership between Roc Nation and NFL if Dr. Dre, Snoop, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige did not perform. During their conversation, Snoop Dogg shared JAY-Z was the first one to greet them in the dressing room, sharing a moment with them as if they had taken home the chip.

So then [JAY-Z] came down, and soon as he came in, he hugged me. We hug each other tight. It was as if we won a championship. Like, you know when you’re genuinely happy for each other? People don’t understand. Me and him are the ones. He’s the one on the East. I’m the one from the West. We love each other. Like, not secretly, like publicly, we love each other. It is what it is, so it’s like for him to go to bat for us and tell the NFL, ‘F*ck that. They perform, or I quit,’ that was the most gangster shit out of everything. Then with attire and kneeling and all this … you can’t wear your gangbang shit? JAY-Z hit me like, ‘Wear what the fu*k you want to wear. Peace to the Gods

After watching it himself, the “Gin & Juice” crafter also spoke on the experience calling it “the greatest shit ever”. “Being there, it felt like the greatest concert of all time,” he continued. “When I first came out, that meant a lot to me that Dre would let me come out first. The first vocal was me. To let me kick that off and have enough confidence in the D-O Double to say, ‘OK. The biggest moment of my career, I trust the D-O Double. He’s going to lead off, and then he’s going to come back at the end of the ninth inning.’ You’ve got to walk the dog back out … boom boom boom, and have all the Crip Walkin’. You know what I’m saying? It’s the West.”

JAY-Z’s partnership was met with mixed reactions on social media due to the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick and his “were past kneeling” statement. But, if it weren’t for Jigga, millions of viewers worldwide d would not have seen people crip walking on their television screens.

If you missed it, and shame on you if you did, you can peep the entire performance by going here. 

Photo: Vivien Killilea / Getty