This year’s Super Bowl is going down in Atlanta, a city which has been experiencing a Black Renaissance for years. Atlanta is also home to a vibrant music scene, and it’s where many musical artists live, sometimes full-time sometimes part-time. With a city so multicultural, musical and diverse, you would think that the NFL would want their Half-Time Show to reflect the host city. Well, you would be wrong. The NFL hired Maroon 5, to much criticism, to be the headlining act for the Half-Time show. Give Adam Levine some credit – he knew the band would be screwed if they didn’t get some African-American artists to perform alongside them. Maroon 5 apparently reached out to many different artists, but many said no because the NFL is a racist organization and many artists are standing with Colin Kaepernick. I think Travis Scott was the only one to take Maroon 5 up on their offer. But Travis did have one request: he forced the NFL to join him in donating to an interesting charity:

Travis Scott today announced that in partnership with the National Football League, he will make a $500,000 donation to the non-profit organization Dream Corps, among “other initiatives that he will work with the League on.” The move is clearly designed to counter criticism over his appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show with Maroon 5 — which was finally confirmed, after weeks of speculation, precisely 30 minutes after Scott announced the donation on Sunday. Sources tell Variety that Black Lives Matter and other nonprofits may be receiving donations as well, although reps for those organizations either said they had not heard from Scott’s team or did not respond to requests for comment.

Both acts, particularly Scott, have come under fierce criticism in recent weeks because performing during the game — which is the biggest global stage for a musician, with an estimated 100 million viewers —is effectively an endorsement of the NFL’s treatment of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The league’s stance toward the athlete, who has not played professionally since his controversial stance to “take a knee” during the National Anthem before games, has polarized audiences and significantly complicated this year’s halftime performance, among many other issues. Sources tell Variety that Maroon 5 spent weeks trying to confirm an act of color to perform with them.

Scott nodded to this situation in a statement announcing the donation. “I back anyone who takes a stand for what they believe in,” he said. “I know being an artist that it’s in my power to inspire. So before confirming the Super Bowl Halftime performance, I made sure to partner with the NFL on this important donation. I am proud to support Dream Corps and the work they do that will hopefully inspire and promote change.”

[From Variety]

I wonder if the NFL said “no” to various charities or organizations and they eventually settled on Dream Corps. Dream Corps was started by CNN’s Van Jones, and its mission is vaguely about social justice and ending the school to prison pipeline and more. It would have been badass if Travis kept saying “no” until he got the NFL to donate money to Black Lives Matter. But I guess this was the compromise they worked out, and hey, Travis got the NFL to do more than they’ve ever done before. Still, I wonder about all the people who said no. And I wonder if Travis Scott is making a mistake. We’ll see.

Photos courtesy of WENN.