NEW YORK — Seven years after Jay-Z told reporters “we’ve moved past kneeling,” the man who knelt has put his account in print. Colin Kaepernick’s memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” went on sale Sept. 15, and the promotional tour has turned into a sustained indictment of Shawn Carter and the company that picks the NFL’s halftime acts.
The charges are specific. Kaepernick told NPR’s Michel Martin that Roc Nation “tried to recruit me as an athlete previously, which I had turned down,” and that Carter then signed “a deal with the NFL to deliberately undercut and undermine the protest.” He said Carter called him the day before the August 2019 announcement for one reason: “to be able to say that he had spoken to me in that press conference.” On the “All the Smoke” podcast he recalled telling Carter, “You’re selling the culture out to a bunch of racists.” Carter’s answer, as Kaepernick recounted it to Trevor Noah, was that “the ink is dry.”
The part he calls “even more disappointing” came after. Stung by the backlash, Kaepernick said, Carter’s camp tried “to go out and place hit pieces against me and say that I didn’t want to play football anymore.” Asked for proof, he said the proof called him. “We got the calls from reporters. We got the calls from journalists trying to validate are these things true. Ultimately some of those stories got pulled. But some of [the stories] organizations ran with.” He has not named the reporters or the outlets. NPR and NBC News asked Roc Nation to respond. Roc Nation declined to NBC and did not answer NPR.
The Lyric That Started It
Kaepernick had kept his silence on Carter for years. Carter broke it for him. During a three-night Yankee Stadium run July 10 to 12, Carter freestyled, “Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him. But along with that check you have to sign a non-disparagement.” The line referred to Kaepernick’s 2019 collusion settlement with the league, reported at under $10 million.
Kaepernick told Time the line was false. “I did not sign a non-disparagement,” he said, pointing to years of public criticism of the NFL as evidence. He drew the distinction he thinks Carter blurred on purpose: he used the grievance process in the players’ collective bargaining agreement and settled a claim, while Carter “cut a deal with the NFL to create personal benefit and undermine the protests.” The unprompted shot, he told NBC News, “speaks to a guilty conscience.” Carter, he said, “is still bringing it up in 2026.”
The Yankee Stadium shows were themselves damage control. Carter’s catalog had just returned to Target, a retailer under boycott from Black consumers for abandoning its diversity commitments, and he used the same freestyle to turn “sold out” into a boast about ticket sales. Kaepernick will not sell his book at Target. He is routing it through Black-owned bookstores.
What The NFL Got For Its Money
Kaepernick’s account of why the league wanted Carter matches the league’s own words. He points to the 2017 owners’ meeting, reported from a leaked recording, in which owners discussed needing a Black face to help them get past the protests. Roger Goodell later described the relationship in a way that would embarrass a subtler partner. Jay-Z, the commissioner said, “understands the platform,” and “it doesn’t get real deep because he knows I’m not going to challenge him.” We quoted that line in February in our report on Roc Nation’s grip on the Super Bowl.
That grip is now the story Kaepernick’s book lands on. Roc Nation has picked every halftime performer since 2019, and as of last week it reportedly had no headliner for Super Bowl LXI, with Carter floating his own name being met with widespread ridicule.
Jay-Z and Roc Nation’s Mounting Losses
Kaepernick’s allegations are about reputation management. The courts have been hearing about something broader. On Sept. 9, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the dismissal of Carter’s extortion and defamation suit against Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee, who represented a woman alleging Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped her in 2000 when she was 13. Carter denied it and the woman dropped her case under suspicious circumstances, but the panel found no evidence Buzbee acted with malice, and Carter now faces Buzbee’s legal bill. We covered the ruling.
In Manhattan federal court, Terrance Dixon’s pending suit accuses Roc Nation of “the laundering of illicit proceeds through corporate accounts” and coordinating “to shield criminal activity from law enforcement scrutiny.” Roc Nation disputes the claims, which are allegations. We detailed the filing. Carter’s lead lawyer, Alex Spiro, has drawn worldwide attention in the Epstein files and, last week, in Tory Lanez’s habeas petition, where a police report places Roc Nation’s chief executive, Desiree Perez, on the phone with Spiro during Megan Thee Stallion’s first statement to detectives. Lanez family alleges Spiro and Roc Nation were behind setting him up for the shooting.
Earlier this year, gaming giant Caesars Entertainment faced a humiliating loss, when their casino venture with Carter was summarily rejected. Carter pulled out all stops, including enlisting alleged extortionist Al Sharpton. Critics are calling any affiliation with Carter or Roc Nation “radioactive.” It remains to be seen when and if the NFL will severe ties with Carter and his company.
Carter has not responded to the book. “I get it,” Kaepernick told NBC. “I don’t agree with the actions.”
Sources: NPR “Morning Edition” (Sept. 9, 2026); NBC News (Sept. 2, 2026); Time (Sept. 17, 2026); Andscape; The Ringer (July 23, 2026); “All the Smoke” and “What Now? with Trevor Noah” podcasts; Yahoo Sports timeline; Carter v. The Buzbee Law Firm, No. B347898 (Cal. Ct. App.); Dixon v. Cartagena (S.D.N.Y.); Paul Smith’s reporting at Shockya. This is an opinion article.
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