Jay-Z is setting the record straight after a video showed him and his family sitting during the national anthem at this year’s Super Bowl. The rap mogul said at a Columbia University event that they weren’t sending a political message.
“It actually wasn’t. Sorry,” Jay-Z said Tuesday when asked about his intentions, according to video of the event posted by TMZ. “It really wasn’t.”
A video posted by TMZ showed Jay-Z, Beyoncé and their 8-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, sitting while Demi Lovato performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Super Bowl Sunday.
“It wasn’t premeditated at all,” Jay-Z said, adding that if it were sending a message, he’d have no problem letting the world know. He also said he wouldn’t have involved his daughter.
“If anyone knows Blue, if we told her we were going to do something like that, you would have seen her attacking me 100 times,” he joked. “She would say, ‘What time? Are we doing it? Are we doing it now? It’s 7:05, daddy. It’s 7:06.'”
The rapper, whose company Roc Nation partners with the NFL, co-produced the half-time show. He explained that he and Beyoncé immediately went into “artist mode” and praised Lovato’s performance.
“We got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t,” he said.
Jay-Z said Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s performance made a statement all on its own. “I didn’t have to make a silent protest. If you look at the stage, the artists that we chose, Colombian Shakira, Puerto Rican J-Lo. We were making the biggest loudest protest of all,” he said.
