Beloved New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne and everyone’s favorite house band The Roots recently previewed their collaborative headlining set at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2025 with a nationally televised performance as part of Saturday Night Live‘s extended SNL50 celebration.
Following an introduction by Dave Chappelle, Questlove and company cycled through booming live recreations of Weezy beats as the 42-year-old rapper worked through some of his most notable verses from tracks like “Uproar”, “Lollipop”, “6 Foot 7 Foot”, “Mrs. Officer”, and “A Milli”. While the SNL50 slot was relatively brief, it showed off a nice little sampler of what fans might expect at Jazz Fest: bangers—and Wayne actually sounding pretty lively and engaged onstage. Yezzir… See you in New Orleans.
Watch the video of Lil Wayne & The Roots from SNL50 below. For a longer taste of Lil Wayne & The Roots, revisit their celebration of New Orleans music from Roots Picnic 2024 also featuring Trombone Shorty, PJ Morton, Lloyd, and more here.
Lil Wayne & The Roots – “Uproar/Lollipop/6 Foot 7 Foot/Mrs. Officer/A Milli” – SNL50
Lil Wayne has had a fraught relationship with performing live in recent years. While he has announced intermittent tours and festival appearances, he has often canceled dates at the last minute for undisclosed reasons. He was widely reported to have been “hurt” that he was not offered the opportunity to headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in his native New Orleans. That honor went to Kendrick Lamar, who later referenced Wayne’s reaction on his 2024 track “wacced out murals” (“Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down.”) While he did not wind up appearing at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Lil Wayne did use the event—specifically, an appearance in an amusingly self-aware Cetaphil ad—to announce the upcoming release of Tha Carter VI).
Lil Wayne has a number of tour dates on his calendar leading up to Jazz Fest with The Roots. Find a list of dates and ticketing information here.
Lil Wayne Super Bowl Ad for Cetaphil – “We’re all a Lil Sensitive”
The Roots are no strangers to backing up notable artists. In addition to Lil Wayne, the band has mounted collaborative concerts and festival appearances with Usher, D’Angelo, Jill Scott, and more. They’re also due to play a run of intimate shows at New York’s famed Blue Note in March. In late May and early June, they will return to Philly for the 2025 edition of Roots Picnic, where they’ll once again headline the festivities as the backing band for D’Angelo. Find ticketing details here.
If you’re heading to New Orleans during Jazz Fest, don’t miss out on Live For Live Music’s extensive Fest by Nite concert series taking place around the Big Easy from April 24th–May 4th, 2025. Find a full listing of Fest by Nite shows here.