When Super Bowl LVIII descended in February 2025, taking over the city of New Orleans, everyone waited with bated breath for Kendrick Lamar’s showstopping halftime performance. Everyone that is, except for one of the city’s most legendary musical sons, Lil Wayne.
The award-winning rapper and cultural phenomenon, a homegrown and native of the Crescent City, has now confirmed that he did not only miss the record-breaking performance, but that he has vowed to never set his foot on the Super Bowl stage. The snub got to Wayne even deeper than fans may have imagined.
“It broke me,” he confessed. “It hurt a whole lot.”
Rather watching the most-watched halftime performance in Super Bowl history — Lamar’s performance averaged 133.5 million viewers — Wayne spent the evening playing pool and smoking with rapper friend Lil Twist. he said:
“Every time that I caught a glance at the TV, something was happening that didn’t make me feel like checking out the action inside,”
The frustration is as much about the snub as the locale. The 2025 Super Bowl took place in Wayne’s hometown city, a city that has informed his life and career in so many ways. The omission of a New Orleans icon in favor of an outsider puzzled many fans, and the NFL’s grasp of musical history and hometown pride was questioned.
Wayne had hoped this would be his moment. He had gone out of his way to put himself in the public eye in the lead-up to the launch — gracing high-society gatherings such as Michael Rubin’s all-white party and hanging out with sports icon Tom Brady. These were both things that went against the famously introverted artist’s character, but he thought they were necessary measures to announce that he was ready for the bright lights.
“I tried to fit in,”
he admitted.
“I’m not Drake. I’m not out there smiling everywhere. I’m usually in the studio, smoking and recording.”
Even so, the NFL passed him by.
“They took that feeling from me,”
Wayne claimed.
“And now, I don’t want to do it. It was perfect. That moment is gone.”
Significantly, Wayne’s disappointment is not aimed at Kendrick Lamar, however. On the contrary, he sent the Compton rapper a good luck text message before the show, saying,
“You better kill it.”
He even accepted a lyric from Lamar’s GNX album that explicitly mentioned him:
“Think my work let Wayne down.”
“I understood him to say that in a respectful way,”
Wayne explained.
“He didn’t do that to me. He couldn’t help that choice.”
Nevertheless, Wayne couldn’t help but analyze the halftime show direction.
“They could’ve had some music. Instead, they had rappin’,”
he shrugged — a gentle barb at the NFL’s programming decision more so than at Lamar.
And instead of stewing in anger, Wayne opted to make the moment a source of creativity. He showed up in a lighthearted Cetaphil Super Bowl ad — a knowing gesture of disrespect — and used the air to hype the long-awaited album, Tha Carter VI, out June 6, 2025. The spot reminded fans of Wayne’s lasting charisma and capacity to find the joke in suffering.
Behind the humor, however, the feeling is still raw.
“I prepared myself mentally,”
Wayne explained.
“So when it didn’t occur, I blamed myself. I figured that perhaps I had not prepared myself mentally enough to handle the result.”
Receptions of the NFL’s ruling — and Wayne’s reaction — split sharply. Some fans called him a sore loser, but others supported him, claiming the league had blown a once-in-a-lifetime chance to honor a hometown legend.
The politics of hip-hop legacy and the current relevancy of the genre sparked heated debates online. An artist who had helped shape the sound of the 2000s in rap, had instructed a generation, and continued to be active and influential, the snub personally resonated with Wayne, as well as with the city of New Orleans and his global fan base.
Wayne’s career has been spanning more than two decades. He’s had an influence on the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj, and even Kendrick himself. He’s been the voice of a generation, yet, in one cultural milestone, he got snubbed.
“I simply want to be acknowledged for the work that I’ve done,”
Wayne explained.
“Not because I attended the right party. Not because I attempted to play a game. Simply because of what I’ve done.”
