Your support helps us to tell the story
Lil Wayne has spoken out about being passed over for the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show, admitting that the ordeal “broke” him.
Over the weekend, Jay-Z, whose company Roc Nation helps the NFL select the halftime performer, announced that fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar had been selected as the headliner for the February event.
Wayne, 41, has since addressed the devastating blow in a new video posted to Instagram on Thursday (September 12).
“First of all, I want to say forgive me for the delay. I had to get strength enough to do this without breaking,” the “Love Me” rapper began somberly. “I’mma say thank you to every voice, every opinion, all the care, all love and support out there. Your words turned into arms and held me up when I tried to fall back.”
“That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot,” he said.
“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,” he continued, adding that it hurt even more given that the game will be held in his hometown of New Orleans.
“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,” he said, thanking his “amazing” fans, who “reminded me that I ain’t s***,” even when “not getting this opportunity” made “me feel like s***.”
“It broke me, and I’m just trying to put my back together, but my God, have y’all helped me,” he added, sharing his appreciation for his friends, peers, family and “my homies on the sports television” for “repping me.”
“I feel like I let all y’all down by not getting that opportunity. But I’m working on me,” he concluded.
While Wayne didn’t specifically name the Super Bowl in the clip, it’s evident from an earlier interview that he was expecting a call from the NFL.
“We’re praying, we’re keeping our fingers crossed, and working hard… I just wanna make it hard for them not to highlight the boy,” he said on YG’s 4HUNNID podcast.
Other artists, including Nicki Minaj, have seemingly called out Jay-Z for choosing Lamar over Wayne, allegedly due to the mogul’s personal feelings about the “Lollipop” rapper and his associates.
“Denying a young Black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego,” Minaj tweeted on September 9.
“Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake and Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!! THE GOAT?!!!!!!!!!!! Nola what’s good?!!!!!! Eminem stood firm on having 50 Cent come out.”
Jay-Z has a long-running feud with rapper Birdman, who signed Lil Wayne to his record label in 1998. Wayne, however, has consistently cited Jay-Z as his all-time favorite rap artist, and admitted he was tempted to sign with him after fulfilling his first contract with Cash Money Records.
