For many years, New Orleans hip-hop figurehead and avid sports fan Lil Wayne has expressed his desire to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. With February 2025’s Jay-Z-curated Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show set to take place at New Orleans’ Caesar’s Superdome and the proverbial seal now broken on hip-hop at the big game following recent performances led by Dr. Dre (alongside his various famous protégés) and R&B star Usher (alongside rappers Ludacris, Lil Jon, Jermaine Dupri, and more), many fans and observers—as well as Wayne himself—noted that this year may be the perfect year for Weezy to get his shot. Then, as the 2024–2025 NFL season kicked off in earnest last Sunday, Kendrick Lamar was revealed as the headliner for the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2025.
Objectively, it’s difficult to argue against Lamar as the choice for this prominent performance. The Compton-native rapper scored one of the summer’s biggest hits with “Not Like Us” thanks to a highly publicized series of blow-for-blow dis tracks levied between him and rival MC Drake earlier this year, catapulting him to unprecedented heights of commercial success. He’s also notably performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show before, as one of the supporting players in Dr. Dre’s West Coast hip-hop retrospective back in 2022. Just this week, Lamar flexed his pop culture relevance when he released a new song, presumably titled “Watch the Party Die”, in an Instagram post during the VMAs. While many eyes in the music industry were peeled on the awards show, Lamar’s new song racked up tens of millions of plays online.
“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” Lamar said in a statement when his Halftime Show was announced. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”
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Still, while Lil Wayne himself remained silent on his Super Bowl snub in the days following the announcement, many in the hip-hop community publicly derided the decision to spotlight Kendrick. Wayne mentee Nicki Minaj was among the loudest dissenting voices, calling out ongoing tensions and loyalties as the reasons behind Lamar’s selection over Weezy. “Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego. Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!! THE GOAT?!!!!!!!!” Other rappers like Fat Joe, Master P, and Cam’ron have also voiced their distaste for the selection of Lamar.
Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego. Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!! THE GOAT?!!!!!!!!!!! Nola what’s good?!!!!!! Eminem stood firm on having 50Cent come out.…
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 9, 2024
Jay-Z, for his part, has remained steadfast about his choice. “Kendrick Lamar is truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer,” he said in a statement. “His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision. He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come.”
Early Friday morning, Lil Wayne himself finally weighed in on the matter in a video posted to his Instagram. “First of all, I wanna say forgive me for the delay,” Wayne says at the beginning of the clip. “I had to get strength enough to do this without breaking. I’ma say thank you to every voice, every opinion, all the care, all the love and support out there. Your words turned to arms and held me up when I tried to fall back.”
“[Not being picked] hurt — it hurt a lot,” Wayne continues. ““That hurt, it hurt a lot,” he said in a statement posted on Instagram. “I thought there was nothing better that spot, on that stage, on that platform. … It broke me, but I’m just trying to put myself back together.”
“I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown,” he adds. “For just automatically mentally putting myself in that position like someone told me that was my position.” Watch the clip below.
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As with all Kendrick storylines this year, it’s easy to trace this situation back to beef. Lil Wayne has long been a mentor, collaborator, and supporter of Drake, the MC with whom Lamar has been publicly sparring since the spring. While he hasn’t exactly picked sides in the Drake/Kendrick feud, fans could point to Wayne’s implicit allegiances as a reason why Jay-Z (and the NFL, and the city of New Orleans) opted for a Kendrick Halftime Show. We also don’t really know what the selection process was, or whether or not Wayne actually officially put his name in the running.
But it’s probably a lot simpler than all that: While Lil Wayne is surely the most recognizable name in New Orleans hip-hop, Lamar is arguably the biggest rapper in the world at this moment in time, and the Super Bowl Halftime Show often leans into the zeitgeist more so than it fetes the game’s location. That said, nods to the game’s host city are not unheard of at the Halftime Show—remember Justin Timberlake‘s (admittedly somewhat cringey) nod to Prince in Minnesota in 2018? Or Atlanta rap legend Big Boi‘s (admittedly bizarre) appearance with Maroon 5 in Atlanta in 2019? We wouldn’t be surprised if Lamar finds a way to celebrate New Orleans on some level in February. Plus, surprise guests are relatively common at the Super Bowl, and there’s no reason to rule out a Lil Wayne cameo just yet. Don’t forget, Wayne and Kendrick do have a collaborative song, “Mona Lisa” from Weezy’s 2018 LP, Tha Carter V—even if the NOLA rapper has publicly noted that he doesn’t really perform that song live because it’s hard to remember all the words.
Lil Wayne w/ Kendrick Lamar – “Mona Lisa”
The post Lil Wayne Reflects On Kendrick Lamar Getting NOLA Super Bowl Halftime Show Over Him: “It Broke Me” [Video] appeared first on L4LM.
