Lil Wayne Recruits The Roots for Singles Medley on ‘SNL50’ Special

Lil Wayne has joined the eclectic roster of musical guests to share a career-spanning singles medley on Sunday night’s (Feb. 16) SNL50: The Anniversary Special.

Wayne was joined by The Roots and DJ T. Lewis for his performance, which opened with 2018 single Uproar, and saw Weezy run through other tunes from his Tha Carter series of albums, including his lone Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper as a solo artist “Lollipop”, followed by “6 Foot 7 Foot” and “Mrs. Officer”.

The lion’s share of the set was devoted to closer “A Milli”, which currently serves as Wayne’s standard set-closer, almost 17 years since it was first released. His non-musical contributions to the SNL50 appearance were limited, with the musician closing out his set with a simple, “Thank you, happy 50th”.

This performance also marks Wayne’s fourth time appearing on a Saturday Night Live broadcast as a musical guest, having first made his debut back in 2008 as part of season 34 opening episode. Featuring Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps on hosting duties, Wayne performed “Got Money” and “Lollipop” during that initial appearance.

Two years later, he appeared with Eminem and also shared a solo performance of “6 Foot 7 Foot”, in an episode which saw Jeff Bridges as host. Wayne would return again in 2018 to appear in a Liev Schreiber-hosted episode where he performed “Can’t Be Broken” with Halsey and “Uproar” with Swizz Beatz.

Earlier this month, Lil Wayne confirmed that he would be releasing his highly-anticipated Tha Carter VI album on June 6, announcing the news as part of an ad for Cetaphil. The third, fourth and fifth installments of Tha Carter each topped the Billboard 200 and the Drake-assisted “She Will” has had a second life vaulting the 2011 track to top the TikTok Billboard Top 50 on the Feb. 8-dated tally.

SNL50: The Anniversary Special is airing Sunday night, following Friday’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday night.