Timbaland is throwing his weight behind a Kanye West headlined Super Bowl. The veteran producer took to Instagram stories on Tuesday (February 14) to celebrate West’s stage capabilities and to also share his thoughts on what he feels a Super Bowl headlined by the polarizing rapper would be like.
“Yo, I was thinking. If Kanye was to do the Super Bowl, that almost would be like watching Motown 25 ’cause that boy is serious,” he said in the Instagram video. “Don’t you ever forget it.”
According to IMDb, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special, produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to commemorate Motown’s 25th year. The program held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25 was the highest-viewed prime time show in the United States for the week. It included a ground breaking performance of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, a Jackson 5 reunion, Marvin Gaye’s inspired speech about black music history, and Smokey Robinson’s long-awaited reunion with The Miracles. Motown 25 remains one of the biggest moments in live TV history.
Timbaland captioned the video writing, “Dat boy Ye doing the Super Bowl [shocked face emoji]. They wouldn’t be ready.”
Timbo’s comments comes just days after Rihanna’s headlining Super Bowl set at the State Farm stadium on Sunday (February 12). The Barbadian singer performed a 13-minute medley of some of her biggest hits and features including Kanye West’s “All Of The Lights” from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Rihanna briefly sang the song’s chorus to the disappointment of some online personalities, who quickly reminded her about Ye’s recent history of antisemitism.
“Rihanna’s inclusion of a Kanye West song on one of the biggest stages in the world is grossly insensitive,” said a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism per Newsweek.
“It was only a couple of months ago that West said that he wanted to go ‘defcon 3’ on the Jews and denied the Holocaust. This is not a man who deserves such a glamorous platform. This is a blunder for Rhianna and her handlers, and they must make clear that they do not wish audiences worldwide to associate her with West and his vile views.”
As you know by now Kanye West was ostracized from society after threatening to go ‘defcon 3’ on Jewish people last October. In subsequent days he doubled down on his claims and even alleged antisemitism was “a stupid word.”
The rapper lost his Billionaire status and relationships following his perceived hateful comments, but a recent blog posts by The Sun claims Rihanna – who a section of Twitter believe paid homage to Ye with her Super Bowl performance in AZ – remains good friends with Kanye West.
The publication alleges Rihanna, 34, still supports the artist now known as Ye despite him being ‘canceled’ and doesn’t care about haters.
“Rihanna is still great friends with Ye, and so is [ASAP] Rocky,” a source told The U.S. Sun. “She doesn’t care if people are offended by her paying tribute to him at the Super Bowl. She still supports him, even if she doesn’t always agree with what he has to say, or his political views.”
“All of the Lights was one of Rihanna’s biggest hits as a feature, she’s never going to take it out of her set, and now it’s doing well again on iTunes as a result of the show.”
Rihanna’s music streams increased by more than 640% after her electrifying set. See our ranking of her best songs and features.
