50 Cent defends Kendrick Lamar as Super Bowl halftime headliner amid Lil Wayne backlash

50 Cent has said that Kendrick Lamar “deserves” to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, following an outcry from rap fans and artists.

Last week, Jay-Z, whose company Roc Nation works with the NFL to select the halftime show performer, announced that the “Not Like Us” rapper and songwriter, 37, would be performing at the event in New Orleans next February.

Jay-Z has since faced backlash from fellow rappers Nicki Minaj and Cam’ron, who have perceived his choice as a snub to New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne, who said in a previous interview that he was expecting a call from the NFL.

Addressing the ordeal on a recent episode of CBS talk show The Talk, 50 Cent said: “I mean, it was a choice. I think Kendrick deserves [it].

“As a solo artist right now, he’s the guy,” the 49-year-old “Candy Shop” hitmaker argued. “Having the game be in New Orleans, I could see why they got the Wayne [idea].”

Lil Wayne recently broke his silence about being passed over for the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show, admitting in a video posted to Instagram that the ordeal “broke” him.

“That hurt. It hurt a lot. You know what I’m talking about. It hurt a whole lot,” the “A Mili” rapper said. “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,” he continued, adding that it hurt even more given that the game will be held in his hometown.

50 Cent, real name Curtis James Jackson III, added that he thinks Lamar should bring out other artists who have “featured on [his] big records,” the same way the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show brought together 50 Cent, Dr Dre, Lamar, Mary J Blige and Snoop Dogg.

Host Sheryl Wood went on to ask the “In da Club” rapper about his thoughts on the ongoing beef between Lamar and Drake.

“I think it’s good for the culture,” 50 Cent responded. “Both Drake and Kendrick produced quality music faster because they had to compete with each other.

He continued: “That competitive nature made them go work and have responses. Hip-hop is still… it’s not just a genre where you can just make a song and sit back. You have to make a song and be ready to make a song again right away with other artists.”

In March, Lamar sparked fan frenzy with his rap feature on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” in which he took aim at rap rivals Drake and J Cole, claiming that rather than representing the genre’s “big three” it’s just “big me.”

Drake later appeared to brush off Lamar’s diss at a concert on his It’s All a Blur tour with Cole.

The next month, in the short space of a week, Lamar dropped two diss tracks, “euphoria” and “6:16 in LA.” In the former, Lamar openly names Drake while also opening fire on Drake’s racial identity, alleged use of ghostwriters, and recent remarks and behavior that have led to accusations of misogyny.

Within days of the double diss track release, Drake came out with “Family Matters,” made up of three parts, in which he accuses Lamar’s pro-Black activism of hypocrisy. In the track, he also accuses Lamar of alleged domestic violence, and of “begging” the Tupac estate to sue Drake for his use of AI versions of the late rapper in a diss track.