The rapper says that he wasn't protesting by not standing up

As you may have seen, Beyonce, Jay-Z and their eldest daughter Blue Ivy attended the Super Bowl at the weekend.

No big deal, there; it's not unusual to see celebs at the biggest American sporting event of the year.

However, what drew headlines regarding their family outing was the fact that they stayed seated during the national anthem, which was being sung by Demi Lovato.

Many assumed that the family were making a protest akin to that of former player Colin Kaepernick, who famously started 'taking a knee' during the anthem while he was still playing. However, people pointed out the hypocrisy of Jay-Z doing so after he said: “I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items" last year.

Now, the rapper has given his own explanation - and he says that he was so spellbound by Lovato's performance that he simply forgot to stand. Despite almost everyone else (and his own security guard) standing, that is.

During an appearance at Columbia University on Tuesday, he denied that it was a protest of any sort. “It actually wasn’t. Sorry. It really wasn’t. What happened was it was not premeditated at all," he said. "The whole time we’re sitting there, we’re talking about the performance.

"Then right after that, Demi comes out, and we’re talking about how beautiful she looks and how she sounds and what she’s gone through in her life for her to be on the stage.”

He added that he didn't want people to stop protesting. "Kneeling — I know we’re stuck on it because it’s a real thing — but kneeling is a form of protest," he said. "I support protest across the board. We need to bring light to the issue. I think everyone knows what the issue is — we’re done with that."

Given that the 50-year-old music mogul recently signed a deal with the NFL to handle 'events and social justice initiatives', you have to wonder whether the truth lies somewhere in the middle.