Lil Wayne said he will never play the Super Bowl after being snubbed for the 2025 halftime show in his hometown of New Orleans: “They stole that feeling,” he tells Rolling Stone in a new cover story. “I don’t want to do it. It was perfect.”
For Wayne, the Super Bowl halftime show had long been a dream, especially if he got to do it in his hometown (he said as much to Rolling Stone in a 2023 interview). And when Kendrick Lamar was given this year’s slot, Wayne released a video admitting that being passed over “broke” him.
In his new interview, Wayne spoke about his efforts to secure the Super Bowl LIX gig, saying someone from the NFL encouraged him to be more public-facing in preparation for the show. “To perform, it’s a bunch of things they’re going to tell you to do and not do, asses to kiss and not kiss,” he said. “If you notice, I was a part of things I’ve never been a part of. Like [Michael] Rubin’s all-white parties. I’m doing shit 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 stu’, smokin’ and recording.”
Those instructions, Wayne said, made him believe he was a lock to perform. When Lamar was announced, though, someone at the NFL apologized and told Wayne, “We ain’t in charge” of the halftime show.
“All of a sudden, according to them, they got curved,” Wayne continued. “So, I’m going to have to just settle with whatever they say.”
For the past several years, Jay-Z and Roc Nation have overseen the halftime, and Wayne said he’s still cool with Jay despite the decision. (Jay-Z and the NFL did not respond to requests for comments.)
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Wayne also said he called Lamar ahead of the Super Bowl to clear the air and encourage him. But when the actual big came around, Wayne said he didn’t watch the halftime show. Instead, he played pool with friend and fellow rapper, Lil Twist, and went outside to smoke.
“Every time I looked,” Wayne said of Lamar’s performance, “it was nothing that made me want to go inside and see what was going on.”
