Jay-Z is going to the Super Bowl, and Dame Dash is already telling him not to call
The NFL made it official on October 26: Jay-Z headlines Super Bowl LXI on Valentine's Day 2027 at SoFi Stadium. His former Roc-A-Fella partner had thoughts.
In brief
Jay-Z is going to the Super Bowl, and Dame Dash is already telling him not to call
Four days ago the NFL made it official, and the internet has not stopped talking since. Variety reports that Jay-Z will perform at the Apple Music Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show on February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The announcement came jointly from the NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation on October 26. Within 72 hours, his former business partner Dame Dash had already gone on camera to pre-decline an invitation nobody had publicly sent him.
That is, in miniature, the whole story. Two men, one label they built together in the 1990s, and a stage that now belongs only to one of them.
From the production booth to center field
Rolling Stone reports that Jay-Z confirmed the booking with a statement: "From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey."Forbes noted the announcement follows Jay-Z's anniversary year under the banner "Jay-Z 30," a victory lap celebrating three decades since his debut album.
The move flips a dynamic that has defined the halftime show for years. Variety points out that Roc Nation has co-produced the show since 2019, with Jay-Z in the background as the architect who helped pick everyone from Rihanna to Kendrick Lamar. Music Times puts it plainly: the booking moves him from producing the NFL's flagship music event to headlining it himself. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone, that when Roc Nation first signed on, he had "just one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him."
What the moment actually looks like is still wide open. Music Times reports no set list or guest lineup was disclosed. DAZN confirmed the same: the musical program and any potential guests are not detailed in the official announcement. The show airs on ESPN, ABC, and Disney+, with streaming on NFL+.
Dame Dash, uninvited, refuses anyway
Here is where this week got genuinely chaotic. Dame Dash, the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder who built the label alongside Jay-Z and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in the '90s, sat down for a nearly 35-minute interview with The Art of Dialogue. Complex reports that Dash warned a bad performance could damage Jay-Z's legacy, saying: "If you do a show like the Super Bowl and it's terrible, it ruins your whole career."
Then he went further. The Jasmine Brand reports Dash said: "We all know he's going to bring out Beyoncé. I'm not going. Don't even call me for the Super Bowl." He predicted Beyoncé would appear. He questioned whether Jay-Z could deliver without his original collaborators. He compared the situation unfavorably to Dr. Dre's 2022 halftime show, which brought Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige to the same stage. Baller Alert noted Dash went so far as to argue that Kanye West has been drawing bigger crowds on raw fan energy alone.
Fans had exactly the reaction you'd expect. The Shade Room captured the comment section: one user wrote, "Dame ain't nobody calling your azz."Ratings Game Music put it directly: "Dame Dash has ruled himself out of JAY-Z's Super Bowl halftime show before anybody has publicly ruled him in." No guest performers have been officially announced, per Baller Alert.
The history underneath this is long. Rolling Out reports Dash's criticism goes beyond his own attendance and into a deeper dispute over Jay-Z's recent performances and legacy choices. Dash has been publicly critical of Jay-Z's concert events going back to the Roots Picnic this past summer.
Meanwhile, on the music side: Daddy Yankee dropped a whole album today
The halftime story wasn't the only Latin-inflected music news this week. Today, October 30, La Postal arrived. Stupid Dope reports Daddy Yankee released his 13th studio album through DY Records, a 15-track project built around the concept of romantic love letters. The album drops just before his Latin Grammy Person of the Year gala on November 11 in Las Vegas, an honor Rolling Stone says the Latin Recording Academy announced earlier this year.
The Cardi B collaboration, "Cosita," is already the album's loudest moment. Hola! describes it as a bachata-infused track, the first-ever collaboration between the two artists. Yahoo Entertainment calls it "the most surprising moment on the album." Cardi's promo video, posted directly to X, went wide fast. According to fan account The Cardi Room, the song had 41,900 views on the announcement post alone within hours.
Yahoo Entertainment also notes the album includes features from Bizarrap, Myke Towers, Danny Ocean, and Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh on a track called "Pokito," which Consequence says expands reggaeton's global reach. Yankee announced his retirement in 2022 after the La Última Vuelta World Tour. Stupid Dope counts the chapters: farewell, then a faith-based album, and now this. The retirement held for exactly one reinvention.
Two different stories about legacy this week. Jay-Z is stepping onto the biggest stage he's never played. Dame Dash is at home, extremely opinionated about it.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
