Akon Doesn’t Think Black Artists Should Turn Down the Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Super Bowl is set to kick off with a lot of controversy surrounding the halftime show. Maroon 5, Travis Scott, and Big Boi will play the halftime show despite calls for them to step down or take a knee during their performance. After a few artists passed on the show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, Akon let it be known that he thinks it’s not the right move to skip on playing the event. 

“I think all of that’s stupid,” he responded when asked by TMZ. “You’re in this business for two reasons: One is to make an impact, and two is for the business of it. Now if you a philanthropist… If that’s something that you feel like you believe in, and you fight for it? You have every right. But if you doing it and you look at it as a way expanding who you are as an artist and as a business, you also have a right.” 

“I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer for that,” he continued. “I just think sometimes people take social issues and make it a lot [more] serious than it has to be. At the end of the day we all gotta live in this world together. And there’s always going to be somebody who feels they’re being treated unfairly, there’s always going to be an inbalanced [sic] situation, but as people we have to compromise certain situations to get to better places.”

Akon doubled down on his pro-halftime show thoughts by the end of the interview. “Honestly, why wouldn’t a black artist want to not perform in one of the biggest events in the world,” he said. “That don’t help us, we need you to be on that stage.” Watch his comments above.