Lil Wayne was in the house at Monday night’s (June 9) 2025 BET Awards, with the rap icon taking the stage to perform both a new song and a classic track on the heels of the release of his new album Tha Carter VI.
Weezy’s performance came a little over an hour into the show, with the star making a dramatic entrance as a gospel choir in red robes sang and fog clouded the Peacock Theater stage in Los Angeles. As the audience greeted him with raucous applause, Wayne fittingly opened with “Welcome to Tha Carter,” which is the second track from his latest LP.
“Man of my word, I stand on my word/ Y’all get on my nerves, I get high and land like a bird,” the hip-hop titan spit, clutching a drink in a plastic tumbler. “Respect, I don’t demand, I deserve, my standards superb/ Family first, family second, family third.”
Tunechi then rolled seamlessly into his next selection for the night, giving fans a blast from the past by dusting off his 2008 hit “A Milli.” As he recited the iconic bars with a big smile on his face, fans in the crowd rapped along to the lines “A million here, a million there.”
Peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, “A Milli” was one of several hits on Wayne’s critically acclaimed Billboard 200-topper Tha Carter III, aka the third installment in his yearslong Tha Carter album series. The rapper recently added to the series with the long-awaited June 6 release of Tha Carter VI, a sprawling 19-track effort featuring collaborations with Wyclef Jean, BigXthaPlug, Jelly Roll, MGK and more co-stars.
The same day he dropped Tha Carter VI, Wayne kicked off his tour in support of the album with a performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Weezy is up for a few prizes at the 25th-anniversary BET Awards — hosted this year by Kevin Hart — including best male hip hop artist against BigXthaPlug, Bossman DLow, Burna Boy, Drake, Future, Kendrick Lamar, Key Glock and Tyler, The Creator. Wayne is also nominated twice in the best collaboration category, with both his work on Bless with Wheezy and Young Thug and “Sticky” with Tyler, GloRilla and Sexyy Red picking up nods.
