There are rumors (as of this writing) that rapper Travis Scott may accept an invite to perform alongside Maroon 5 at halftime of this season’s Super Bowl.
While this wouldn’t usually be news to me — I don’t even watch the halftime show performances — it’s big news this year, as the NFL has tried, and failed, to book several Black musicians for the show before settling on Maroon 5.
According to sources, as the NFL doesn’t announce their offers publicly, Jay-Z turned the show offer down, as did Rihanna, and most recently, Cardi B.
The generally-accepted reasoning for the declines is that these artists displaying solidarity with the culture in light of the fact that estranged quarterback Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed - a result of a clear blackballing by the NFL.
Kaep has an ongoing lawsuit against the NFL that I strongly suspect will be settled before it comes to a verdict (which would be smarter for the NFL to avoid the airing of their laundry, and kinda-prove that Kaep’s cause, should he agree to a settlement, was not bigger than money — but we’ll see).
Though it isn’t yet official, should it become so, I anticipate some people having an issue with Travis, who’s Black, performing at the game after other prominent Blacks turned it down. I don’t think labeling Travis as wrong makes sense, though.