Colin Kaepernick says Jay-Z’s latest shot at him is less a diss and more a tell. In a new NBC News interview, the former 49ers quarterback argued that the rapper is still talking about him in 2026 because the backlash from Jay-Z’s NFL and Target partnerships never really went away.
The comments land in an interview with Lester Holt tied to Kaepernick’s upcoming memoir, The Perilous Fight. They are a delayed reply to a July freestyle from Jay-Z’s Yankee Stadium residency, where Hov used Kaepernick as a punchline while defending a Target deal.
During the first night of those Yankee Stadium dates, Jay-Z addressed critics of his exclusive Reasonable Doubt anniversary vinyl at Target. Some Black shoppers have boycotted the retailer after rolling back DEI programs. Mid-freestyle, he pivoted to Kaepernick and the 2019 NFL settlement.
“They run out of characters, had to bring back up Kaepernick again,” Jay-Z rapped. “Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him, but along with that check you gotta sign a non-disparagement. I’m the one they can’t control.” He added lines about half a billion going back to the community, ignoring “Twitter activists,” and bringing families home through policy work.
The implication was clear: Kaepernick cashed out and went quiet; Jay-Z did not.
Kaepernick told NBC that the claim is false. He said his collusion settlement with the NFL did not include a non-disparagement agreement. Asked about the freestyle, Kaepernick did not fire back line for line. He framed it as proof that the 2019 NFL partnership still bothers Jay-Z.
“First and foremost, what it speaks to is the power of people,” he said. “The backlash that [Jay-Z] received for partnering with the NFL and going counter to people’s interests in 2019 was a major problem for him, so much so that he’s still bringing it up in 2026.”
Then the line that became the headline:
“People are now realizing, ‘Why are you so comfortable stepping into these positions that are counter to the positions that people on the ground actually want?’ And to me, I view that as speaking to a guilty conscience and trying to reposition or reframe the conversation.”
He tied Jay-Z’s current posture to the league itself. “He has built the alignment with the NFL, the NFL that has blackballed me, the same NFL that, in a players-owners meeting in 2017, said we need a Black face to help us get rid of the protests.” The NFL has long denied that it blackballed Kaepernick.
Kaepernick said he understands the move even if he rejects it. “I understand why he’s trying to do reputational recovery. I get it. I don’t agree with the actions, but I’m also not gonna respond to everything that’s said about me, because I also believe the actions and the work that I do will speak for themselves.”
This did not start in 2026. Jay-Z was an early high-profile supporter of the anthem protests. The split opened in 2019, when Roc Nation signed on as the NFL’s live-entertainment partner, and Jay-Z argued the movement should move “past kneeling” toward institutional work. Kaepernick and many activists saw that as the league buying cover without bringing him back onto a roster.
In the memoir and interview, Kaepernick has described learning about the NFL deal after it was already signed and warning Jay-Z that he was “serving the culture up to a bunch of racists.” That account has not been independently confirmed by Jay-Z’s camp in the current coverage.
The Target chapter is newer. Jay-Z’s limited Reasonable Doubt drop at the chain drew the same “sold out” charge that followed the NFL pact. Kaepernick is taking the opposite path with the book: a spokesperson said The Perilous Fight will not be sold at Target. Instead, he is working with the National Association of Black Bookstores.
Strip away the concert bars and the interview soundbites, and the disagreement is about leverage.
Jay-Z’s version: money plus access produces concrete returns, community funds, jobs, legislation, and critics recycle Kaepernick because they ran out of other characters. He presents himself as the one the league cannot muzzle.
Kaepernick’s version: partnering with institutions that punished the original protest, then using that protest’s most famous face as a foil, is reputational repair. If the work was settled in 2019, he asks, why is the name still in the set list seven years later?
Neither man is likely to close the gap. Jay-Z has not issued a fresh response to the NBC sit-down. Kaepernick says he will not chase every mention. The interview airs more fully around Sept. 7 on Before & After With Lester Holt, which means this exchange is still mid-cycle, not finished.
For hip-hop and sports audiences, the story is less “who won the bar” than a decade-old question that keeps returning: when a movement becomes a brand partnership, who gets to say the work is done?