Lil Wayne has seemingly responded to Kendrick Lamar name-dropping him on his new album, GNX.
In September, Lamar, 37, was announced as the 2025 Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show headliner in Wayne’s hometown of New Orleans. At the time, Wayne expressed his disappointment over not being selected to perform at the big game, which is set to take place at Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9.
On Friday, Nov. 22, the conversation continued when Lamar mentioned the fellow Grammy winner by name in “wacced out murals,” a track off his new album.
“Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down / Whatever though, call me crazy, everybody questionable / Turn me to an esk—, I drew the line and decimals,” Lamar raps in the second verse.
“Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulated me / All these n—-s agitated, I’m just glad they showin’ they faces,” he adds on the track.
On Nov. 23, Wayne seemingly shared his thoughts on Lamar’s mention on GNX. “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head,” the rapper wrote to his followers on X (formerly Twitter). “Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all.”
“No one really wants destruction, not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed,” he added. “On me. Love.”
Kendrick Lamar (left) and Lil Wayneuu.
Arturo Holmes/MG23/Getty; Paras Griffin/Getty
The latest developments in the halftime show conversation come two months after Lamar was announced by the NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation as event’s headliner on Sept. 8. Days later, Lil Wayne told fans in an Instagram video that it “hurt a whole lot” to discover he didn’t get the gig in his hometown.
“First of all, I wanna say forgive me for the delay,” Wayne said at the time. “I had to get strength enough to do this without breaking. I’mma say thank you to every voice, every opinion, all the care, all the love and the support out there. Your words turned into arms and held me up when I tried to fall back.”
“It hurt a whole lot,” he continued. “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown and for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. But I thought there was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt.”
While the “A Milli” rapper said it “made me feel like s— not getting this opportunity,” he thanked his supporters for reminding him that he “ain’t s— without y’all, and that’s an amazing reality.”
“Like I said, it broke me, and I’m just trying to put me back together, but my God, have you all helped me,” Wayne added. “Thanks to all of my peers, my friends, my family, my homies on the sports television and everybody repping me. I really appreciate that, I really do. I feel like I let all of y’all down by not getting that opportunity, but I’m working on me, and I’m working, so thank you.”
As seen in footage later shared on X, Wayne also told fans at his Lil Weezyana Fest earlier this month that he felt the Super Bowl performance was “ripped away” from him.
“That moment I said to myself, I want to be onstage for the Super Bowl one day in front of my mom,” Wayne said. “And I worked my ass off to get in that f—— position, and it was ripped away from me. But this motherf——- moment right here? They can’t take that, man. They can’t take that from me.”
Lamar’s latest album marks his first full-length release following his high-profile exchange of disses with Drake in the spring. GNX features two collaborations with SZA and production work from Jack Antonoff. The album addresses other happenings surrounding Lamar’s back-and-forth with Drake — such as Snoop Dogg apparently reposting Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” diss earlier in the year.
Lamar is up for four 2025 Grammy nominations for “Not Like Us,” the most commercially successful of his Drake responses.
