On Sunday (September 8), Kendrick Lamar revealed that he will be headlining the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans. Considering the year Lamar has had with the massive success of his Drake diss track, “Not Like Us,” the decision wasn’t necessarily a surprising one.
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However, according to some Lil Wayne fans, the “Uproar” emcee should have been chosen to headline the show—especially since it’s in Wayne’s hometown.
There was an outcry on X shortly after Lamar’s announcement, with one user @driizzyys stating: “lil wayne is the only one worthy of performing at the new orleans superbowl f**k yall talking about.”
Another fan on X, @lovexistwithin, called the decision for Lamar to headline a “horrible” and reiterated: “Love Kendrick but nah..Lil Wayne hometown..that’s not cool!”
Wayne’s longtime collaborator and engineer Fabian Marasciullo also expressed this sentiment. “Confused. Disappointed. Angry. But most of all, inspired,” Marasciullo, 45, wrote on his Instagram Story shortly after Lamar’s announcement.
“Will never again be in a position or have the [goat] in a position where we are at the mercy of someone else’s decision. We will make the decisions.”
He isn’t the only one to voice his disapproval at Lamar headlining the popular sporting event next year. Master P went on Instagram to state that “...Lil Wayne should be a part of this celebration as well” and that “We have to give our legends their flowers while they are here.”
Earlier this year, Lil Wayne appeared on the 4HUNNID podcast hosted by YG and Stevie to share his desire to headline the 2025 Super Bowl even though no one reached out to him about it.
“I will not lie to you, I have not got a call or nothing. But we are praying. We praying. We keeping our fingers crossed,” Wayne said, according to Uproxx.
“I’m working hard. I’mma make sure this next album and everything I do is killer. I wanna just make it hard for them not to holler at the boy.”
Technically, Super Bowl Halftime performers aren’t selected because of their hometown connection to where the annual event takes place. Usher—an Atlanta native—headlined the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show even though it was in Las Vegas.
Rihanna performed in Arizona in 2023 even though she hails from Barbados and Beyoncé was the 2013 Super Bowl headliner when it took place in New Orleans despite being from Houston.
Lamar being picked over Lil Wayne was about capitalizing on a cultural moment—not shading one of the most influential emcees in the history of hip hop.
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