News : JAY-Z Defended By Fat Joe, Fabolous & More Over Super Bowl Backlash

JAY-Z has come under fire in recent days over next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, but he also has his fair share of supporters in his corner.

The announcement that Kendrick Lamar will perform at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans next February has been met with with outrage among many Lil Wayne fans (and even peers), who feel that Weezy should’ve been given the gig considering the Big Game takes place in his hometown.

The loudest criticism has come from Nicki Minaj, Birdman, Juvenile, Cam’ron and Master P, with some of them even pointing the finger at Hov, who alongside Roc Nation helps organize the halftime show.

But as Fat Joe argued on Instagram Live on Tuesday (September 10), the Marcy Projects mogul has given Hip Hop a deservedly bigger platform at the Super Bowl since he partnered with the NFL in 2019.

“Years ago, the beef with the NFL was that Black people weren’t represented and they were doing us wrong, even though we were the talent and whatever the case,” he said. “But then they brought in JAY-Z and Roc Nation to do the shows and they brought out Dr. Dre, Eminem, Rihanna, number one ratings — they killing it.”

Joey Crack also pointed out that the halftime show performer isn’t JAY-Z’s decision alone so it’s unfair to solely blame him for any perceived snub.

“Yeah, JAY-Z’s a big voice but, you know, he gotta go through the NFL ranks, the Roger Goodells and everything like that, so they can come up with who’s performing at halftime,” he continued. “It ain’t just one man’s decision — that I know of. So to just blame one man…”

The Terror Squad don ended his argument by joking: “If he wasn’t doing the halftime [with] Roc Nation, there’d be no Hip Hop! ‘Cause there never was Hip Hop [before 2022]. You’d be listening to, ‘Don’t go messin’ with a cotton-eyed boy / Cotton-eyed Joe / Cotton-eyed Joe.’ You’d be listening to that shit at halftime.”

Fellow New Yorker Fabolous echoed some of Fat Joe’s sentiments while discussing the controversy during his own Instagram Live broadcast earlier this week.

“I do see people blaming it solely on JAY-Z when I don’t think that’s the truth,” he said. “I think it’s a committee, it’s a board, it’s different people who come in to play when decisions like that are made.”

Fab, who has worked with both JAY-Z and Lil Wayne, acknowledged that a Weezy Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans would’ve been special, but he suspects that Kendrick Lamar’s resounding victory over Drake in their high-profile feud sealed the deal.

“I do think it would’ve been great for Lil Wayne to [headline the Super Bowl halftime show], just because of how much he’s done in the game and how much he’s meant to New Orleans. That would’ve been a great opportunity,” he added. “You never know if he’s going to be included, if that’s something that was [discussed] behind the scenes.

“I think it was interesting that Kendrick got it after the Drake battle, too. I think that’s more something that should be talked about. His relevance is really up from that, so that could be something that tipped the scale.”

Despite their past issues, Hot 97’s Funk Flex also spoke up in defense of JAY-Z, albeit while taking aim at the NFL.

“WE GOTTA STOP BLAMING JAYZ FOR EVERYTHING… THE NFL HAS NEVER CARED ABOUT PEOPLE OF COLOR. (BEFORE JAYZ) (BEFORE COLLIN),” he wrote on X. “THE NFL HAS ACCOMPLISHED TURNING US AGAINST EACH OTHER! THIS WOULDNT OF HAPPENED IN TAYLOR SWIFT’S HOME TOWN! LIL WAYNE LEGACY ALREADY WRITTEN IN STONE!”

Speaking on The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne Tha God also weighed in on the debate and shut down the narrative that JAY-Z intentionally denied Lil Wayne the Super Bowl halftime show, as Nicki Minaj had suggested in an explosive social media rant.

“I’m shocked that so many people are running with the ‘JAY-Z is hating on Lil Wayne’ narrative because JAY-Z has done nothing but show Wayne the utmost love,” the radio host reminded listeners. “JAY-Z literally helped this man with his tax debt.

“I don’t know what the actual number was, but USA Today said back in 2018 it was over $14 million in taxes. Jay helped him get out of debt, Jay helped him keep his house, so that doesn’t sound like hate to me. Jay wanted to sign Lil Wayne.”

Charlamagne also argued that Kendrick Lamar is “better for business” than Lil Wayne, saying: “If I’m making a business decision in 2024 and I look at the monster year Kendrick just had and I’m looking forward to February 2025 — maybe Kendrick got an album coming out — who’s gonna garner us the most eyeballs, the most streams, the most social media engagement?”

Jigga also received support from his longtime friend and former Roc-A-Fella cohort Memphis Bleek, who reveled in people being “mad mad” at his former label boss in a post on X.