Lil Wayne got snubbed for Super Bowl LIX. Instead, Kendrick Lamar is all set to play at the 2025 Super Bowl LIX halftime show this season, the NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation Announced earlier last week. The singer who last performed at the Super Bowl alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg as a guest back in 2022 will create history by performing solo at the Super Bowl. While Kendrick’s fans were buzzing with enthusiasm, the news prompted a flurry of heated reactions and controversies, which we’re all here for.
It is not a surprise that the LA native, coming from a city that’s always buzzing, creates a buzz every time he steps onto the scene. And this time it was the location where the NFL Super Bowl would be taking place, New Orleans. The moment the performing artist was announced, Twitter flooded with people objecting to the decision of Kendrick being chosen and not Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne hails from New Orleans, Louisiana, a city that he claims to have shaped his music and career. The rapper publicly expressed his disappointment and frustration after not being selected to perform at the NFL event, showing how upset he was about the decision. The Rapper gave a rare display of his emotions in a clip where he expressed his feelings about the incident, he stated his disappointment saying “I blame myself for that, but I thought there was nothing better than that – that spot, on that stage and the platform, in my city.” The rapper told his fans, “So as I said, it broke me, and I’m just trying to put me back together”.
Jay-Z who was named the co-producer of the Super Bowl halftime show in 2019 after he partnered with the NFL to advise the league on entertainment and music was slammed too by the netizens for choosing the Westcoast prince over the CEO of Young Money. I wouldn’t argue that the commercial success of the rapper Kendrick Lamar contributed to his obvious selection for the NFL and not Lil Wayne, who originates from the town of New Orleans. Undoubtedly, this year has been a milestone year for Kendrick Lamar with his Diss track over Drake, “Not Like Us” which shot to No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and returned for a second week on top. Kendrick Lamar set the internet on fire by performing the track five times in a row at the Juneteenth concert which was a daring decision indeed.
There is no doubt that Lil Wayne has one of the most impactful and influential careers in the history of music but he doesn’t wield the same dominance as Kendrick Lamar among contemporary music listeners. Let us know what your opinions are on the brewing battle between the two greatest rappers of all time.
