Nicki Minaj blasts Jay-Z for not booking Lil Wayne to headline Super Bowl
Nicki Minaj has been heavily critical of Jay-Z for choosing Kendrick Lamar to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show over Lil Wayne. She argued the honour should have gone to Lil Wayne because of his standing in rap music and because the game will be played in his hometown of New Orleans.
Minaj took to social media to make her voice heard. She wasn’t alone in her criticism, either. While many people are excited about seeing Lamar headline the halftime show, they believe Lil Wayne should also play a part.
“Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego,” she said, “Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!! The GOAT?!!!!!!!!!! Nola what’s good?!!!!!!”
In a slightly more subdued post, Minaj wrote with more sentiment, highlighting a common issue throughout hip-hop today: legends of the game aren’t given their flowers. “God forbid if Wayne was to leave this earth right now,” she said, “The culture would be in mourning. That’s why so many ppl keep saying to give our legends their flowers while they are still around the smell them. Sitting around all day playing games with ppl life & legacy.”
A number of other Wayne associates have also made it clear that they believe he should be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime show. Birdman, Master P, Cam’ron, and Mase all came out to express their disdain for the decision.
“As ambassador of Entertainment in the City of New Orleans I have to agree with the fans that @liltunechi #LilWayne should be a part of proceedings as well,” said Master P in a post on social media, “He’s one of the greatest [Hip-hop] artists alive, still relevant and he’s a New Orleans native.”
Lil Wayne didn’t hold back in expressing his desire to perform at the Super Bowl, either. In an interview that the rapper did earlier this year, he confirmed that nobody had gotten in touch with him about the performance but that he was willing to do it.
“I will not lie to you, I have not got a call,” he said, “But we all praying, we keeping our fingers crossed. I’m working hard. I’m going to make sure this album and everything I do is killer, so I’m going make it very hard for them to… I want to just make it hard for them not to highlight the boy.”