Lil Wayne went live on his Instagram for the first time and touched on his absence from the Cash Money 30-year reunion that took place at the 2024 ESSENCE Festival. Now, Weezy did show up, but he made it clear that he was performing on behalf of Young Money.
Wayne separately hit the stage with Jae Millz, Gudda Gudda, and Mack Maine to perform “Every Girl” and other smashes from the Young Money discography. Following much backlash for his absence, Weezy made a lengthy video on Sunday (July 7), where he revealed a disappointing text message he received about not participating with Cash Money.
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“Funny story: I got hit up by somebody. Somebody texted me. I guess they had been at the show too long or something and they said, ‘You wrong. You know you should have came out,’” he revealed. “‘You had all these f**king fans out here. You didn’t come. You know you should have.’”
In response to the message, he nonchalantly said, “I’m like, ‘What you talking about? The afterparty or something?’” However, he did make it clear that he had an “awesome” time at the festival.
Wayne also shouted out “all the artists that performed” at ESSENCE Festival naming Mary J. Blige, GloRilla, and more, but didn’t name Birdman, Juvenile, or his former labelmates who performed before and after him. Additionally, the Hip-Hop icon also replaced the Cash Money logos with his Young Money emblems during his set.
As fans anxiously awaited the NOLA conglomerate to do it one time for the “’99 and the 2000s,” sadly they only got to witness Birdman, Mannie Fresh, Juvenile, and B.G. revisit Cash Money’s biggest hits.
Take a look at Weezy addressing the Cash Money reunion above and take a look at both performances below.
Following the show, B.G. took to social media to address the reunion, naming former Hot Boy, Turk, who was also absent from the stage.
“It’s only one ni**a that ain’t in this bi**h, you heard me?” the “Bling Bling” rapper said. “He brought that on hisself. Ni**a did a bunch of h*e sh*t, he can’t take it back. He got to fault himself for not being here. I know there’s gonna be a lot of people that’s like, ‘Oh, well, such and such, whoop de whoop.’ The ni**a know what he did last summer. And I’ma just leave it like that.”
Turk previously said he wouldn’t be at ESSENCE due to the “business side of it.”
