Kendrick Lamar controversial halftime show features Serena Williams
Serena Williams joined Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl halftime show. Lamar performed his diss track “Not Like Us,” about Williams’ ex, Drake.
The NFL missed its chance for a Lil Wayne Super Bowl halftime show, he tells Rolling Stone.
The rapper, 42, ruled out ever playing the Super Bowl halftime show after he was passed over for this year’s event, which was held in his hometown of New Orleans.
“They stole that feeling,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone published Thursday. “I don’t want to do it. It was perfect.”
Wayne revealed he did not even watch this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, which was headlined by Kendrick Lamar, and instead played pool with fellow rapper Lil Twist. “Every time I looked, it was nothing that made me want to go inside and see what was going on,” he said.
The rapper also confirmed he went out of his way to be “a part of things I’ve never been a part of” leading up to the Super Bowl with the specific goal of being selected as the halftime show performer.
“Like (Michael) Rubin’s all-white parties,” he said. “I’m doing (things) 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 (studio), smokin’ and recording.”
The Grammy winner has been open about being disappointed that he wasn’t selected for the Super Bowl gig given his connection to New Orleans. The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles was held at the Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9.
After Lamar was announced as the headliner in September, Wayne said in an Instagram Live video, “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown and for just automatically mentally putting myself in that position. I thought there was nothing better than that spot, that stage, that platform, in my city. So it hurt, it hurt a whole lot.” He also said at Lil Weezyana Fest in November that the Super Bowl “was ripped away from me.”
Lamar later referenced the controversy on his album “GNX,” rapping, “I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.” But on “The Skip Bayless Show” in December, Wayne said he had spoken to Lamar and wished him “all the best” with his halftime show performance.
In February, Wayne confirmed he would not attend the Super Bowl at all, writing on Instagram, “Y’all know I’m not going to be there this week.” But just one week later, he stepped onto a different high-profile stage by performing during the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live.”
Contributing: Taylor Ardrey
