Lil Wayne, a longtime champion and emblem of New Orleans, has launched a video sharing his disappointment at being handed over, for Kendrick Lamar, to carry out on the metropolis’s 2025 Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present. “That harm, it harm so much,” Wayne mentioned in an Instagram video. “I believed there was nothing higher that spot, on that stage, on that platform. It broke me, however I’m simply attempting to place myself again collectively.”
As New Orleans’ host 12 months approached, Wayne has repeatedly expressed his want to play the Halftime Present. “I cannot mislead you,” he mentioned in February. “I’ve not bought a name or nothing. We praying. We holding our fingers crossed. I’m working laborious. I’m’a make certain this subsequent album and the whole lot I do is killer.” He mentioned final December that, if he bought the gig, he wouldn’t convey out any company. “I earned that second, so I’m not bringing anybody”—wanting Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, or a “New Orleans jazz nice,” he mentioned.
Since Lamar’s announcement as halftime headliner, a number of artists have sympathized with Wayne, together with New Orleans greats Birdman and Grasp P. None was extra vocal than Wayne’s onetime protégé Nicki Minaj, who seemingly took intention at Jay-Z as a result of his Roc Nation firm oversees Tremendous Bowl leisure. “Denying a younger black man what he rightfully put into this recreation for no different purpose however your ego,” Minaj tweeted. “Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki bought you punishing Lil Wayne?”
In asserting his choice final week, Jay-Z mentioned, “Kendrick Lamar is really a once-in-a-generation artist and performer. His deep love for hip-hop and tradition informs his inventive imaginative and prescient. He has an unparalleled skill to outline and affect tradition globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his affect will likely be felt for years to come back.”
The sport is about to happen at Caesars Stadium on February 9.
