Bryan Michael Cox is the latest name to chime in on the discussions surrounding Jay-Z's newly announced partnership with the NFL. This time around though, the legendary songwriter and producer is using little-known facts to shed light on the situation.
You'll recall that Jay-Z's new deal involves making the Roc Nation honcho the "live music entertainment strategist" for the league, but according to Cox, when his longtime friend and collaborator Jermaine Dupri was offered a similar opportunity, Jay-Z was allegedly among those who advised the southern mainstay from taking the opportunity.
"I'm not saying that it can't turn into some good shit," Cox said of Hov's partnership. "We're also talking about a guy who single-handedly picked up the phone and called Jermaine to tell him not to do it [...] When we all had that meeting with the NFL, all that shit was part of the same shit."
What B. Cox is referencing specifically was Dupri's role in producing a 10-day series of free shows to add onto the musical programming of Super Bowl 53 in Atlanta this year. Naturally, the tense climate of the Super Bowl applied a level of pressure that would cause JD to bear a bit of backlash for being involved with the league.
"I'm not gonna condemn it and be like, 'That shit's wack,'" Cox added. "For me, I want to look at it intelligently because I know a lot of what was happening before and how we were engaged last year as a community [...] At the end of the day, [Dupri] took a beating for doing the same shit. And I guarantee you they didn't pay him as much as they're about to pay [JAY]."
