On September 8th, the NFL announced that Kendrick Lamar would be the performer of the halftime show for Super Bowl LIX, which will be in New Orleans on Sunday, February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome.
The announcement rocked the Hip Hop world and became a topic of heated debate among fans and critics of Lil Wayne, as they felt that he should be the headlining act for the halftime show.
On September 10th, Lil Wayne posted a cryptic photo to his social media of his hand coming up from a stage holding a cup, with the words “NOLA Finest”, alongside a strong arm emoji. Fans immediately showered him with love and support, calling him “the goat”. Some even speculated that there might be plans to include him on the show.
However, this was not the case. Around approximately 1:00am on September 13th, Lil Wayne posted a heartfelt video on his official Instagram page, @liltunechi, thanking his supporters and expressing his disappointment on not being chosen to perform:
“First of all I wanna say forgive me. Forgive me for the delay. The delay on, uh, hust the delay. I wanna say uh, I had to first of all I had to first of all get strength.
I want to say thank you. Your words turned into arms and held me up when I tried to fall back…
That Hurt..Hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about, that hurt a whole lot…
I blame myself for not being mentally prepared a letdown, and for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that, but I thought there was nothing, you know, I thought there was nothing better than that spot, on that stage, and that platform in my city. And um, so that hurt. It hurt a whole lot.
But yall… Yall are f*cking amazing. It made me feel like sh** not getting this opportunity. And when I felt like sh**, you guys reminded me that I ain’t sh** without yall..and that’s an amazing reality.
So, like I said, it broke me, and I’m just trying to put me back together, but my God how you all helped me. Thanks to all my peers, my friends, my family, and my homies on sports television, and everybody reppin’ me, I really appreciate that. I really do.
I felt like I let all of yall down by not getting that opportunity, but I’m working on me, and I’m working. Thank You.”
There had been a lot of speculation by fans on who made the decision on who to book for the Super Bowl, with many fans googling it and getting an outdated answer about the host city deciding.
In an article by Andscape on September 10, Jay Cicero, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and a Super Bowl LIX Host Committee member, clarified this in a formal statement:
“It is the NFL’s decision alone for all entertainment for the Super Bowl. We found out about it at the same time everyone else did this past weekend.”..”
So, contrary to popular belief, it was not the city of New Orleans that made the decision to book Kendrick Lamar. Roc Nation has been under a 5-year contract with the NFL since 2019, in which they “spearhead and advise on the selection of artists for NFL tentpole performances, including the Super Bowl”.
Watch Lil Wayne’s video below:
That was real goat talk!
We send our love to Lil Wayne.
