Hurt Lil Wayne reflects on Super Bowl 2025 halftime show going to Kendrick Lamar: It broke me

Lil Wayne is big-time bummed.The rap superstar had been actively campaigning to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show in his native New Orleans.But instead, it was announced last Sunday that another hip-hop giant, Kendrick Lamar, would be running the biggest stage in the game on Feb.9 at the Caesars Superdome.While this week everyone from Nicki Minaj and Drake to Cash Money Records co-founder Birdman and New Orleans Ambassador of Entertainment Master P has been criticizing the choice of K-Dot — a Compton, California native who previously appeared at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show as part of the Dr.

Dre-led hip-hop blowout — Wayne himself didn’t break his silence until an Instagram post on Friday morning.“First of all, I want to say forgive me for the delay.I had to get strength enough to do this without breaking,” said a downcast Wayne 41, sitting on a coach in front of a framed “Making of Carter 6” poster.“I must say thank you to every voice, every opinion, all the care, all the love and support out there.

Your words turned into arms and held me up when I tried to fall back.”Then, Tunechi — as the rapper, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., is also known — shared just how “hurt” he was by the decision made by Jay-Z and his Roc Nation company, which has partnered with the NFL to produce the Super Bowl halftime show since the 2020 co-headlining coupling of Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.“That hurt.It hurt a lot.

You know what I’m talking about — it hurt a whole lot,” said a clearly wounded Wayne.“I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for 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,” he continued, “I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt.It hurt a whole lot.”But Wayne’s obvious disappointment was also tempered by his deep appreciation for...