Jermaine Dupri: Jay-Z NEVER Told Me Not To Take An NFL Deal
Jermaine Dupri: Jay-Z NEVER Told Me Not To Take An NFL Deal
Jermaine Dupri has spoken out for the first time about Jay-Z’s controversial deal with the NFL.
Last week, Jay-Z signed a partnership with the league as a live music entertainment strategist. Many fans weren’t too happy about it considering the boycott against the NFL after it allegedly blackballed now-former star Colin Kaepernick following his protests against police brutality during games.
Dupri was thrown into the mix after his friend and fellow producer Bryan Michael Cox said Jay-Z told Dupri to turn down a similar deal in the heat of the boycott. Funk Flex stepped in and said Dupri confirmed Cox’s statement.
Now, Dupri is clearing the air.
“Just as you haven’t heard me speak right now, I ain’t say nothing while he was saying that, and that’s what happened with this, I didn’t say anything. It’s interesting how people start taking ‘Jermaine said, Jermaine said…’ I never said anything. It got to the point where people were calling me to do an interview. And I was like, no I’m not gonna say anything because I didn’t say nothing. Therefore, there’s no need for me to say anything. I thought that was gonna go away honestly. I thought me not saying anything… you know, it’s media, it’s press, it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do.”
He also said that he never reached out to Cox about it.
“I didn’t even call B. Cox because I felt like, each person in the world has their own opinion and how they feel and how they do things. As he mentioned, yeah people in my own city, the city of Atlanta, were dogging me out, tearing my name apart for throwing concerts in Centinniel Park. Not the Super Bowl, not halftime, not anything. People were going ape on me, right? So, he and I had a conversation about that. I was like, I just wanna see where this is going.”
He added that he was doing the same thing Jay-Z said he’s doing now and taking action. Dupri said he went as far as meeting with parents of victims of police brutality in order to raise awareness. But the parents were upset with him.
“These people were going crazy on me.”
He said during the meeting one of the parents told him,
“‘Jermaine you’re taking blood money.’ It hit really, really hard. So in that moment I was getting so much flack for trying to do something for Atlanta. I started to back out. As they asked me to do things more and more that said NFL, I would start saying ‘I’m in the studio. I’m cool.'”
He said Jay-Z called him after seeing the clip of the meeting.
“He never told me don’t do what I was doing. And I think that’s the part that… I see Flex’s confirmation. When I tell people that he and I spoke, they run with that. That’s not a secret. Everybody knows Jay-Z is my man, so we speak. I didn’t think that me speaking to my friends is like a secret. I told Flex that I spoke to Hov, from there… capital letters on Twitter? Wow…”
Funk Flex has responded and hinted that Dupri is lying to make Jay-Z and his management company, Roc Nation, happy.
“Hahahah! I love you Jermaine for life! NFL / ROCNATION applying that pressure for YOU to backpedal! (Body Language is everything) ITS WEDNESDAY BRUH? THIS HAPPENED MONDAY? ( I finally understand what Kap / Nessa been Experiencing! )”
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