The NFL regrets picking Kendrick Lamar over Lil Wayne for this year’s Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans, a league employee has reportedly admitted. Kendrick’s performance at Caesars Superdome sparked controversy last weekend, with some fans branding it ‘the worst Super Bowl halftime show ever’ during the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
To add to the controversy, the ‘Not Like Us’ rapper was chosen for the gig ahead of New Orleans native Lil Wayne, who reportedly received a letter of apology from the NFL when the choice was announced last year. Sports commentator Skip Bayless said the league ‘immediately’ got in touch with Lil Wayne to apologize over the snub, while revealing that his good friend was devastated to have been overlooked in his home city.
Bayless said on his YouTube show: ‘The NFL immediately sent Wayne a letter of apology. From nobody in particular, just from the league on NFL letterhead. ‘A letter that thanked him for his years of supporting the league, not just the Packers, his favorite team, but supporting and promoting the NFL, in general, which he has.’
And according to The US Sun, the NFL has now concluded that opting for Kendrick instead of Lil Wayne was a ‘mistake’. ‘A mistake was made and we regret the choice that was made,’ an NFL employee is quoted as saying. ‘Lil Wayne should have been the first option, as he is from New Orleans and we know that there was a clear motivation for him and his side to do a unique show in his town.’ Fans were heavily critical of Kendrick’s half time show, branding it one of the worst in history
NFL chiefs are now keen for future halftime choices to have a closer connection to either the place, city or state where the Super Bowl is held. Lil Wayne, who was born and raised in New Orleans, was said to have taken the snub badly after not being picked for the show in his beloved city. ‘Lil Wayne was the obvious choice, and the choice made wasn’t the best one at all,’ the insider added.
Another NFL employee was quoted as saying that the decision to have Kendrick perform at halftime was the ‘wrong one’ while vowing to not make the same mistake again going forward. Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, Bayless revealed that Lil Wayne was struggling to deal with being snubbed for the halftime show after the NFL chose Kendrick to headline in the Big Easy.
‘I mean, he makes weekly appearances on the NFL’s Sunday pregame show, ‘NFL GameDay Morning’ on the NFL Network. But he will not play Sunday’s halftime show, and he definitely won’t watch a second of Sunday’s halftime show,’ the former FS1 star said.
‘He will watch the game, just not the halftime show. Not one second.’Â ‘When the news first broke, it hit Wayne hard,’ Bayless continued. ‘He didn’t feel like doing much of anything for several long days and nights. He’s better now.’Â Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, recently opened up on the disappointment at not being chosen to perform at a Super Bowl in New Orleans.
‘I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown and for just automatically mentally putting myself in that position,’ he said on an Instagram Live stream. ‘I thought there was nothing better than that spot, that stage, that platform, in my city. So it hurt, it hurt a whole lot.’
Kendrick, who swept up another five Grammys earlier this month, didn’t seem to carry that momentum into his performance in New Orleans on Sunday night. The 37-year-old started on top of a car at the Superdome before aiming a dig at arch-nemesis Drake, who recently sued his and Lamar’s record label, Universal Music Group, over the controversial Not Like Us diss song, in which he’s referred to as a ‘certified pedophile’.
Despite the lawsuit, Kendrick still performed the song but took the word ‘pedophile’ out of his lyrics. He referenced the legal battle with Drake over the insult by telling the crowd in Louisiana: ‘I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.’
Kendrick couldn’t resist delivering two brutal jibes about the Canadian artist, including ‘Say Drake, I hear you like them young’ and ‘trying to strike a chord and it’s probably a minor.’Â He also wore a big silver chain pendant with a small letter ‘a’, which was seemingly another reference to the ‘A minor’ lyric in his contentious diss track.
Acting legend Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as ‘Uncle Sam’, introduced the rapper’s medley of hits on the night, with R&B singer SZA featuring as a special guest. Tennis icon Serena Williams, who previously dated Drake before ending their romance on sour terms, also made a shock dancing cameo during the performance.
