Colin Kaepernick says he told Jay-Z “You’re Selling the Culture Out” over NFL deal on “All The Smoke”

The quarterback described a phone call the day before the 2019 Roc Nation announcement and said Jay-Z used his name anyway

Colin Kaepernick sat down with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for an episode of All The Smoke. The conversation runs about 90 minutes and covers fatherhood, his memoir The Perilous Fight, the 2016 protest, a disputed 2019 NFL workout, Nike, his 49ers career, and player leverage. The most discussed section is his account of a phone call with Jay-Z.

Kaepernick said the first real conversation he ever had with Jay-Z came the day before the August 2019 press conference announcing Roc Nation’s NFL partnership. When describing the conversation, he said the call was not a consultation. Jay-Z had already been asked in a prior interview whether he had spoken to Kaepernick. So, in Kaepernick’s account, the call existed so Jay-Z could say that he had.

The Call Before the Press Conference

Roc Nation had previously tried to recruit Kaepernick as a client, but he declined. Still, Jay-Z wore his jersey on Saturday Night Live and was publicly supportive of Kaepernick’s protest. As a result, Kaepernick tried for a long time to reach him to say thank you. However, those attempts did not produce a meeting or a call.

Just before the press conference that announced Roc Nation’s NFL partnership, Colin Kaepernick and Jay-Z finally got on the phone. During the call, Jay-Z told him the deal was done. Kaepernick said he disagreed with them doing the deal and told Jay-Z he was selling the culture out to a bunch of racists. He said this was not a slogan. By then his legal team had taken discovery and owner depositions in the collusion case. So, Kaepernick claims he knew how owners talked internally about the protests.

Jay-Z’s reply, as he quotes it: “Well, the ink’s dry.” He said he accepted that he could not stop the deal. His one request was that his name be kept out of it. He said that request was not honored. At the press conference, Jay-Z argued that the protest had succeeded in raising awareness and that it was time to move past kneeling into actionable items.

A Name Used Anyway

The objection Colin Kaepernick had was not to the business deal, it was the narrative around it. Kaepernick said he told Jay-Z that a private deal with the NFL was acceptable. “If you want to do a deal, that’s all good. Do a deal,” he recalled saying. What he objected to was using his name and declaring the protest finished in order to bless that deal. When he spoke on it, he called that how Jay-Z “move[s] as a person.” To reiterate, Kaepernick said was not asking Jay-Z to walk away from the partnership. However, he also made it clear he was asking Jay-Z not to attach his name to it.

He added a second charge. After the backlash, he said Roc Nation or people around the deal tried to plant stories that he no longer wanted to play, or that the NFL had made him offers he never received. “I’ve never received offer from the NFL,” he said. Then, he said he got calls from radio and media personalities asking whether those stories were true. Also, Kaepernick objected to telling “millions of people across the country that are doing this work” that the country is “past that work.” For him, that positioning was the real insult, not the money.

This was the first time anyone heard his side of the call. The “ink’s dry” line and the request to keep his name out of the announcement were both on the record for the first time. Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson treated the disclosure as the centerpiece of the episode. Kaepernick did not raise his voice or call Jay-Z names. He described a closed account. 

Back Pay, Not Silence

The collusion grievance is where the money question actually lives. Kaepernick filed it under the collective bargaining agreement, not as a civil lawsuit. That meant arbitration, confidentiality, and no public discovery. It also meant the only remedy available was back pay. He used a $150 million figure for lost career earnings, adding that the 2019 settlement recovered wages. Kaepernick said the settlement did not include a non-disparagement clause. In addition, he said it did not waive a future right to play.

That last point matters because of what Jay-Z said seven years later. At his July 2026 Yankee Stadium show marking the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z freestyled that Kaepernick took a check and, with the check, signed silence, while Jay-Z himself was the one they cannot control. Kaepernick’s answer is legal and plain. He did not sign an NDA and he did not give up his voice. The money was already his. It was back pay for being kept out, not a payment to stop talking. After all, he is still talking.

Kaepernick also pointed out what the freestyle reveals. Seven years after the deal, on an anniversary tour, the 2019 backlash is still part of the set. As a result, he said that he lives “rent-free” in Jay’s head. The settlement is confidential. The NFL has long denied a blacklist. Jay-Z has not responded to the specific claims made in the interview.

Props, Nostalgia, and Pushback

The All The Smoke episode drew more than 1,000 comments on YouTube within a day. Sentiment was overwhelmingly supportive. The Jay-Z section drew the most reaction. Many people gave props to Dame Dash for calling Jay-Z out in 2019.

One comment with 482 likes read, “I’ve never clicked soooo […] fast in my lifee this my goat.” Another with 273 likes read, “Much respect and admiration for Colin K.” A third with 249 likes read, “This is crazy because the Ed Sheeran fall out from Robert Kraft proves the NFL can and 100% had colluded to blackball against Kaep. The timing of this video is important.”

A comment with 254 likes read, “I twisted my ankle running to give you props on this one.” Another with 183 likes read, “Actually couldn’t be a better time for this interview in our lifetime.” Another with 136 likes read, “Plz protect this brotha at all cost!”

Reactions to the Jay-Z section were pointed. One comment with 27 likes read, “Dang! JayZ was like the ‘Ink Is Dry’! Cold blooded.” Another read, “So Dame is right about Jay-Z. Dude didn’t even want to talk to him personally Wow J.” Another read, “Nas told yall about jay-z years ago how he be moving but I never liked jay z like that but hearing what Kap said was just the cherry on top.”

A minority questioned Kaepernick’s position. One comment read, “Imagine suing your employer, and then getting upset that they won’t rehire you.” Another read, “Why didn’t he go to CFL – if he wanted to play so bad- he was never going to play in the NFL again once he took the settlement.” Another read, “Ain’t nobody trying to see him play football at this point. Wish him the best though.”

A Waiver His Lawyers Called Malpractice

In 2019, Colin Kaepernick had a workout with the NFL to gauge a potential return. However, Kaepernick says the 2019 league-arranged workout was a legal setup, not a football evaluation. In his account, the league controlled the site and the terms. The waiver was drafted by an outside firm specifically for him. His lawyers called advising him to sign it malpractice, because it would have waived employment rights far beyond a normal workout release.

The planned session had little transparency, limited high-level decision-makers, and restrictions on cameras and media. He refused those terms, live-streamed his own session, and said seven teams sent people. He said one scout called him elite. A later 2022 Raiders workout, he said, used a standard waiver.

The 2019 waiver story was a part of the football narrative that most people never heard. Coaches and personnel people have shown interest over the years, he said, and owners have blocked it. No team has offered him a job. Now, he is 38 years old, which would be considered “old” for a player. Despite this, he said he still trains as if a team could call.

Final Thought

The interview restates a split that has been in public since 2019. Kaepernick’s theory is that the protest was not a completed awareness campaign. Police violence, voting rules, and institutional incentives are still the subject. A cultural broker who joins the league while the originator of the protest remains unsigned is not the next phase.

Jay-Z’s 2019 theory, not restated in this interview, was that protest creates attention, institutions then have to be entered, and Super Bowl stages and hiring pipelines are the work. The All The Smoke hour does not resolve that argument. It does make Kaepernick’s private terms public. He was willing to ignore a deal he hated if his name and the we’re past kneeling frame were not used.

The post Colin Kaepernick says he told Jay-Z “You’re Selling the Culture Out” over NFL deal on “All The Smoke” appeared first on Hip Hop Vibe.

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