Kid Rock Calls Jay-Z a ‘DEI Hire’: How Do Their Album Sales Compare?
Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, produced the Super Bowl halftime show, and Kid Rock performed at Turning Point USA’s rival performance. In a recent interview, Kid Rock suggested that Jay-Z only got his powerful role because of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. How do Kid Rock’s album sales compare to Jay-Z’s?
Kid Rock called Jay-Z a ‘DEI Hire’ by the NFL
In a recent interview, Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show performer, Kid Rock, speculated that the NFL hired him in a DEI initiative.
“So [Roger Goodell] goes, ‘Well, maybe Jay-Z will do it,’” he told Laura Ingraham, per Men’s Journal. “I respect his music and his hustle, but he seems kind of like a DEI hire.”
He added that the NFL partnered with him because “Black guys love JAY-Z.”
“I’m not that ignorant, I know a lot of us love Jay-Z, not just Black guys,” he said. “But in the league where you have this problem, it seemed like, ‘Oh, we’ll bring him in.’”
He also described the Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny halftime shows as a “middle finger to conservatives, to the MAGA crowd, to my base, everything.”
Kid Rock’s performance drew as many as 6.1 million viewers, and Bad Bunny’s performance reached 128.2 million viewers
How do Kid Rock’s album sales compare with Jay-Z’s?
Kid Rock released his debut album in 1990. In total, he has released 12 studio albums, with his 2007 album Rock n Roll Jesus peaking at No. 1. His most popular song, “All Summer Long,” helped the album go triple platinum in the United States. According to Forbes, he has sold 31.5 million albums total.
While Jay-Z began his music career in the 1980s, he didn’t release his debut album until 1996. He has released 13 studio albums. Though his first two albums did not peak at No. 1, every one of his albums has gone platinum. In addition, every album he has released since Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life in 1998 has peaked at No. 1. Jay-Z is one of the best-selling musical artists with 140 million records sold.
The ‘All Summer Long’ singer faced accusations of lip-syncing in his halftime show
During Kid Rock’s performance of his song “Bawitdaba,” some viewers noticed that he appeared to be out of sync with the words. He claimed that this was because the performance was pre-recorded, not because he was lip-syncing.
“So they sent me a first cut, you know, we taped it, then they sent me a first cut, and my comment was, the sync is off,” he said, per the Daily Beast. “It’s extremely difficult for them to line up the sync. Could have been done if we had more time. I’m confident they could have got it right. I only got to see one edit. I didn’t think it was the end of the world.”
His explanation came after some viewers poked fun at him for the performance.
“That song takes so much energy,” he said. “You’ve seen me. People see me, I’m flipping mics. I’m jumping around like a like a rabid monkey on stage, still trying to at 55 years old.”
