Lil Wayne admits to kissing some ass for Super Bowl halftime gig

"If you notice, I was a part of things I’ve never been a part of," the rapper said in a recent interview.

By Emma Keates  |  April 17, 2025 | 10:47am
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for EA Sports Bowl at Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest
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Lil Wayne admits to kissing some ass for Super Bowl halftime gig
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Lil Wayne really wanted to do the Super Bowl halftime show this year. That’s not a secret; the game was held in New Orleans’ Superdome, his hometown arena, and he told Rolling Stone as much in 2023. When Kendrick Lamar’s performance was announced, the Tha Carter rapper posted a video in response saying the NFL’s decision “broke” him. It seems he’s still a little bitter. In a new Rolling Stone profile, Wayne lamented that the NFL “coulda had some music” while reportedly mimicking guitar playing. “But instead they got rappin’… They fucked up.” 

According to Wayne, he thought getting the gig was all but guaranteed after the league encouraged him to attend more high-profile events. “To perform, it’s a bunch of things they’re going to tell you to do and not do, asses to kiss and not kiss,” he said. “If you notice, I was a part of things I’ve never been a part of. Like [Michael] Rubin’s all-white parties. I’m doing shit with Tom Brady. That was all for that. You ain’t never seen me in them types of venues. I ain’t Drake. I ain’t out there smiling like that everywhere. I’m in the stu’, smokin’ and recording.”

After Lamar was announced, he says someone at the NFL called to personally apologize and tell him that “we ain’t in charge” of the halftime show. “All of a sudden, according to them, they got curved,” he continued. “So, I’m going to have to just settle with whatever they say.”

While there was some speculation, the rapper says things are fine now with both Lamar and Wayne’s “close friend” Jay-Z, who has reportedly chosen the halftime act since 2019. The snubbed rapper apparently called Lamar to clear the air ahead of the latter’s performance, after both his high-profile disappointment and a mini beef over a line from Lamar’s recent album, GNX. In the song “Wacced Out Murals,” Lamar raps, “Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down,” leading Wayne to post the following message on X the day after the album’s release: “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”

In the new profile, Wayne clarified that the message wasn’t a direct reference to Lamar and his protégé Drake’s highly publicized feud. In fact, he says barely knew about it at all. “If it don’t happen on [ESPN] or FS1, I wouldn’t know that happened,” he quipped. That tracks with an incident last year in which Wayne sang Lamar’s smash-hit diss track “Not Like Us” onstage, which naturally made the public think “I was dissing,” he recalled. Now, he claims that he “didn’t even know it was Kendrick!” 

Despite the snub, Wayne hasn’t lost any of his confidence in the lead-up to his forthcoming album, Tha Carter VI. “If you got a favorite rapper, tell ’em ‘Suck my dick,'” he told Rolling Stone‘s reporter. There will presumably be more where that came from when Tha Carter VI releases June 6.

 
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