The In Studio Show

Rapper Action Bronson and Taylor Swift have more in common than meets the eye. They’re both celebrated musicians. They both enjoy the finer things in life. And, ever since Swift began dating Tavis Kelce, she and Bronson have both been die-hard NFL fans.

“It’s fun [to watch football],” Bronson, 40, told Us Weekly exclusively while talking about Swift’s newfound love of sports and his involvement in Captain Morgan’s upcoming Battle of the Captains and the ongoing #FollowTheCaptain campaign. A lifelong fan of the New York Jets, Bronson teased that watching NFL games gets “even better when you’re watching winning football.”

“Winning” is something that the Jets have struggled to do ever since Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon in September during his fourth play as the team’s quarterback. “I was there, man. I was there,” Bronson told Us. “I drove three hours, sat in the roundabout for two hours to get into the parking lot, just to get to my seat: 50-yard line, front two [seats]. OK, [Rodgers] falls weird. My boy goes, ‘Ah, he’s hurt, he’s hurt.’ The next play, [Rodgers] is out for the rest of the [season]. That’s it.”

He added, “I walked out after that. We literally left. Had some General Tso’s chicken, my friend had a couple of shrimp, and we left.”

Lately, Swift has had the distinct NFL experience of rooting for a team struggling to get the W. Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs lost back-to-back games to the Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills but are still expected to make the playoffs. Swift (and the millions of new fans she’s brought to the game) will continue to cheer for Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, and the rest of the team.

While there are some mixed feelings about how much the NFL focuses on the Swift-Kelce relationship, Bronson thinks it’s a good thing that Swift has introduced new fans to the sport. “It’s great to have eyes on the game,” he told Us. “And this game is meant for everyone to enjoy. She’s honestly an inspiration to a lot [of people].”

Bronson even pitched himself for a collab with the “Anti-Hero” singer. “To me, taking control of your career, I’m trying to follow in Taylor Swift’s footsteps,” he said before referring to his alter ego. “Dr. Baklava x Taylor Swift in the future. I’m going to have a whole new demographic, you watch!”

Football fans who are 21 and older can watch as Bronson proudly flies the flag for his J-E-T-S while hosting the Battle of the Captains event on Sunday, December 17, in New York City. While Bronson will rep Gang Green, Super Bowl XLVI champion Victor Cruz will represent the New York Giants, whom he played for from 2010 to 2016, in a battle to see “who is the real New York team?”

As part of the season-long “Follow the Captain” campaign, Captain Morgan is encouraging football fans 21 and up to check out FollowTheCaptain.com and @CaptainMorganUSA on Instagram, where they can unlock spiced-up game day experiences and win amazing prizes, including special performances from artists like Bebe Rexha, a watch party in Arlington, Texas, or even a trip to Las Vegas to watch Super Bowl LVIII.

“I just enjoy having a good time as far as putting on cool events and giving people a different type of experience,” Bronson told Us about the upcoming bash. “We’re going to have a nice watch party. We’ll have some food. We’ll have the two cocktails I created. And this is about unlocking all kinds of little codes and stuff like that. It’s like [The Legend of] Zelda. This game is like Zelda, man. And at the end, you get this beautiful prize of being able to possibly attend the Super Bowl.”

“This is a dream situation for a lot of human beings,” said Bronson, teasing, “and a lot of aliens.”

Such creative thinking is a staple both in Bronson’s music career (he dropped Cocodrillo Turbo in 2022, which Pitchfork called a “hallucinatory, fuzzed-out journey into the wilderness”) and on his food show, F—k That’s Delicious. He recently debuted the Wake-Up Captain cocktail on the FTD online series, “The In Studio Show.”

“I was just thinking, sometimes the games are on at 7 a.m.,” Bronson told Us, referring to how the NFL has held games overseas. “You need a Wake-Up Captain. I just started drinking espresso. For the past year or two, I started drinking coffee, and, I don’t know, it’s been something eye-opening and an enjoyment in my life. And the craze is the espresso martini, so why not put rum in it and enhance it to make it more delicious?”

Bronson paired the drink with a Cacio e Pepe Churro, which he said is because there’s “nothing better than fried food in the morning.” The recipe is a mouth-watering combination of honey, cheese, black pepper and the airy dough of a churro “to get you going and fuel you up enough to get through a day of games.”

“I also love ‘play on things,’” he explained. “So if you can create and enjoy and make something new and spectacular, that’s what it’s all about. It’s art. All this stuff is connected.”

With a wide range of interests, Bronson is content to pursue his passions, even if they aren’t the most fashionable at the moment.

“I don’t have the current gauge of what’s hot or what’s not,” he told Us. “I do things that are timeless. There’s no timestamp on what I do. When we look back 1,000 years, it’ll still be fresh and brand new. Just like when you discover old vinyl records and old music from back in the day. You put that needle to the record, and it’s like, ‘What world were we living in that I didn’t know about this?’”

Bronson acknowledged that artists always have to “push the envelope,” but they shouldn’t worry about trying to change current trends. With many fans criticizing the state of modern hip-hop, Bronson would rather everyone “worry about themselves” and focus on being the best they can be.

“Who cares what other people are doing?” he asked. “It shouldn’t be within you to want to change because someone else is [doing something]. Just do what you do. And for me, I have so many different hobbies and interests. This music, this rap stuff, literally … kind of came as a gift. I wanted to be a chef, so I feel like I’m a professional in many different realms and I just keep my head down and do what I do.”

Bronson continued, “That’s why I’m not the biggest artist in the world, but if I’m focused strictly on that, I could have been, but that doesn’t tickle me. What tickles me is I just enjoy waking up in the morning, taking in some air and some sun. I’m a simple man, bro.”

Bronson’s career as a rapper was “unexpected,” but he’s not letting the opportunity go to waste. “I’m going to ride everything [until] the wheels fall off because I feel like, I don’t know, I have so much to give,” he told Us. “But in my way. I have to give it in my way. I can’t do it in anyone else’s way.”