Diddy’s Federal Indictment & Lil Wayne’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Response: ‘Billboard Unfiltered’
It’s a full house on this week’s Billboard Unfiltered as the fellas break down all things surrounding Diddy’s federal indictment and Lil Wayne’s response to being snubbed by the NFL with Kendrick Lamar getting the Super Bowl Halftime Show headlining slot in Weezy’s hometown next year.
As someone who grew up on Bad Boy Records, deputy director, editorial content Damien Scott says it feels like a “betrayal” of the Diddy persona that supplied the soundtrack to his childhood.
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“It sucks,” he said. “It feels like a betrayal. This is a person who I think more than anybody else if you grew up in the ’90s listening to hip-hop and you’re from the East Coast, there was no larger figure than Diddy.”
Scott continued: “I remember speaking to a music exec years ago and I told him my favorite rap album’s [Ma$e’s] Harlem World. And he’s like, ‘That’s when hip-hop died.’ … It’s tough to reconcile and wrap your head around what was allegedly going on while he was building this world that you as a fan were so a part of. It’s pretty f—ed and devastating to learn.”
Diddy was arrested earlier this week on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. The unsealed indictment alluded to alleged sexual “freak-offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lube being seized from Combs’ home raids earlier this year.
“I just wanna know, Brother Love, why do you need a thousand bottles of baby oil? That’s a little crazy,” Carl Lamarre questioned.
Senior charts & data analyst Trevor Anderson is interested to see if any of Diddy’s collaborators distance themselves from him and remove their songs together off of streaming services. “It will probably be a little harder for them in the sense of who owns the music. … If they even have the rights to pull it down might be a contentious point,” he said.
After peers like Nicki Minaj and Master P spoke out in his defense, Lil Wayne finally responded to the NFL’s decision to not book him at the 2025 Super Bowl LIX halftime show and admitted he was devastated and that it “hurt a lot.”
Staff writer Kyle Denis doesn’t get the outrage and thinks K. Dot is deserving of the slot. “I feel like the fans deluding themselves into thinking one outcome was the only outcome that could’ve possibly happened is part of fans overstepping their boundaries,” he said.
Denis added: “I can’t remember another performer in recent memory actually putting up a video, ‘I’m heartbroken.’ What is that?”
Watch the episode below.
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