Shaquille O’Neal proffered advice to aggrieved Lil Wayne on how to counter the fact that he wasn’t chosen to perform for the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The Hall of Fame basketball icon and current “Inside the NBA” co-host was speaking to NFL running back Leonard Fournette on his “Big Shaq” podcast when he broached the topic of Wayne being famously snubbed in favor of Kendrick Lamar.
Lamar, of course, caused the biggest cultural quake in 2024 when he throttled fellow rap star Drake in one of the most impactful battles in hip-hop history, powered by the ubiquitous blockbuster anthem “Not Like Us.”
Shaq has an idea on how Wayne can avenge the slight
“I have a hypothetical question […] let’s just say the Super Bowl halftime show was from 12 to 1 — should Lil Wayne do a concert in New Orleans simultaneously and televise it?” Shaq posed, before answering his own question: “I would do that […] Stream it and then give people a choice,” he added.
The fact that Wayne was not selected to perform for the Super Bowl in his New Orleans hometown incited a fierce backlash from the likes of Nicki Minaj, Birdman and Cam’ron. They and others directed their ire at Jay-Z — who has been instrumental in organizing the halftime show since he formed a partnership with the NFL in 2019.
Lil Wayne admits it took a minute to recover from the snub
Lil Wayne admitted to his 20 million Instagram followers that the decision not to let him rep his city in the biggest televised event — by far — in America was a severe soul-crushing experience.
“That hurt. It hurt a lot […] 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. So I blame myself for that. But I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt. It hurt a whole lot,” he said in the IG video
