Hip-Hop

Lil Wayne is a living legend, and he was feeling the love from the raucous Kansas crowd. Weezy headlined Travis Kelce’s Kelce Jam 2024 presented by Jim Beam on Saturday night (May 18) about a half-hour outside Kansas City across the Missouri state line.

Thousands filled the outdoor Azura Amphitheater on a sweltering day donning unique outfits celebrating their beloved Kansas City Chiefs as well as themed-fits surrounding the superstar tight end and his music icon girlfriend Taylor Swift, who was across the globe performing in Stockholm, Sweden, on her Eras Tour.

The New Orleans rap deity followed sets from 2 Chainz and Diplo while the crowd anxiously awaited the main attraction when Wayne popped out just shy of midnight CT to 2008’s Jay-Z-assisted “Mr. Carter,” bringing all of the fans to their feet.

As only Weezy could, he casually hit the stage smoking a blunt while rocking a Gucci hat, a black long-sleeve with baggy Gucci shorts and combat boots. “Trav, you brought ’em out tonight. One time for my motherf—-g n—a Travie, man,” Wayne said while taken aback by the staggering numbers in the audience, which seemed to be more than he anticipated. “God I didn’t even see ’em. Up top, make some f—–g noise, damn!”

The energy was taken to another level when Weezy brought out his Welcome 2 ColleGrove running mate and frequent collaborator 2 Chainz.

After running through “Rich As F–k,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight end even joined the performance of “Duffle Bag Boy.” Kelce fittingly brought a Louis Vuitton duffle bag with him, but inside was the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which Chainz briefly rented from the three-time Super Bowl champ.

Earlier in the day, Kelce exclusively revealed to Billboard that “Duffle Bag Boy” was one of his all-time favorite songs and remains a pre-game playlist staple for him to this day before hitting the field.

“I’m a huge mixtape era guy,” Kelce says. “Wayne has been one of my favorites since high school, since the early 2000s. Since 2 Chainz is here, ‘Duffle Bag Boy’ is one of my favorite songs of all-time. I have it on my game day playlist and everything.”

Playaz Circle’s “Duffle Bag Boy” arrived in 2007 and reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Outside of the Tity Boi cameo, Lil Wayne kept the setlist similar to his Welcome to Tha Carter Tour from last year, which included fan-favorites like “Hustler Musik,” “I’m Goin In,” “Lollipop,” “Let the Beat Build,” “Blunt Blowin,” “Fireman,” “Mrs. Officer,” “We Be Steady Mobbin’” and “The Motto” before wrapping up with “A Milli.”

Weezy enjoyed himself so much throughout the hour-long set that he hopes to be performing at Kelce Jam 2025, if Travis will have him. “Trav, I don’t know if you do this every year. But make sure I’m on the list every f—–g year,” he pleaded with the Chiefs star.

As one fan bluntly put it while leaving the venue as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” serenaded those left, “That was f—–g awesome.”

Watch a live stream of the entire festival on X. Lil Wayne’s set begins around the 4:11:00 mark.

Common has been a legend in the game for more than three decades. But even with all his success in hip-hop and on the big and little screens, there’s always that nagging “what if?” question about the doors you didn’t open as well as the ones you did.

Sitting down on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast with Carmelo Anthony and Kid Mero this week, the 52-year-old Chicago-bred MC, chopped it up about the NBA playoffs and his favorite ballers — as well as getting seriously trash-talked to by Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan — but he also shared some previously unheard stories about working with Ye, including the mountain of Kanye West beats he passed on early in his career.

“It’s at least, 10 Ye beats out there that I passed on,” he said of the tracks he didn’t take from fellow Windy City native West. “Even on one of those albums, he like, ‘Common passed on the beat, I turned it into a jam,’” he added in quoting the chorus from “Everything I Am” from Ye’s 2007 Graduation album.

That wasn’t it, either. Common said he also took a pass on such future Ye tracks as “I Wonder” and “Heard ‘Em Say.”

“It’s crazy because I didn’t take any Ye beats, like in that ’96-’97, when-I-met-him era. But then in 2003, I’m like, ‘Ye, lemme get some beats, like come on!,’” Common said. “I felt like at the time No ID was at such a higher level that I was just like, ‘Ye, these beats ain’t doing it for me yet. You gettin’ there, but you ain’t there yet’… I got more memories of joints I passed on, beats that he made for me, that ended up being, like… a lot of his Late Registration album.”

For example, Common said Ye made the beat for ‘Heard ‘Em Say” just for him, writing the song in front of him in 10 minutes. “I was like, ‘This beat dope.’ He was like, ‘You want it?’ and I was like, ‘Man I gotta…’ because it didn’t feel like it was fitting in my album [Be]… So I was like, ‘Nah, you good.’ He said, ‘Are you sure?’ I was like, ‘Nah I’m good.’” Looking back now, he told the hosts, yes, of course “that beat was dope.”

The pair have worked on plenty of other songs, including 2004’s “The Food” single and 2005’s “The Corner,” as well as Ye appearing alongside Common and John Legend on “They Say” from Common’s 2006 Be album, which was produced by West, how also had a heavy hand in writing the entire LP.

The deep-dive round ball talk also found Common saying that if he had to pick a baller to represent him as a rapper, he’s torn between retired three-time NBA champ Dwayne Wade or power forward-turned-broadcaster and round mound of rebound Charles Barkley. “I say that because D Wade had a lot of success too… but I think sometimes D Wade don’t get all the love [he deserves],” Common said, praising both men for pivoting to other careers after they hung up their jerseys.

For the record, asked how he felt about the recent Drake-Kendrick Lamar lyrical battle, Common said now that the war is over he’s confident calling it a “good heavyweight fight… I respected what each one delivered.”

Watch Common on 7PM in Brooklyn below (Ye talk begins around 51-minute mark).

Kid Cudi is feeling confident as he continues his rehab from recent surgery on his foot after he broke his calcaneus — the bone that forms at the heel — while jumping off the stage at Coachella last month. Forced to cancel his planned Insano world tour as a result of the injury, Cudder has been cooling his heels as he rehabs the foot, providing an update on Thursday morning (May 16) about his ongoing recovery and teasing an upcoming album he thinks is his finest work to date.

Wearing a grey hoodie pulled around his face, the rapper, 40, shared some exciting news in a pair of video posts in which he said, “I’m all good. I feel fantastic. Healing is going great. Therapy’s been great. No pain. I think I’m gonna bounce back from this stronger than ever, so there’s that.” He also announced that he’s already rescheduled “about 80%” of the tour and is just waiting to lock in some of the remaining dates, promising to provide an update as soon as he can.

“I’m excited, man… the tour was gonna be physically demanding, so I might have to change some things depending on how my recovery goes,” he explained. “I think I’ll be go though, I think I’ll make a full recovery. That’s what I’m praying for.”

He then paused the nearly two-minute video and directed fans to check out a second, nearly five-minute clip in which the constantly evolving MC provided a blueprint for what he promised was his very exciting next phase. Noting that he’s been telling fans for months that he planned to hit them up with something new before the year is out, Cudder said, “As you know the past few years I’ve been a machine… I’ve been so inspired and in the studio cooking and trying new things. I started something towards the end of the last year I really think is something special.”

While he did not provide specific details on that mystery project, after a long, thoughtful pause to collect his thoughts, Cudi promised to give a taste of the new phase “soon,” which might include some new music before summer’s end. “Something tasty, something new,” he teased, noting that every one of his album phases is a “reinvention.”

“You know me, you know I always like to switch it up, try something new, challenge myself,” he said. “And I think this is going to remind people of the days where I was really… really trying to explore and feel something in the music.” He said his Insano album and the 2024 reissue, Insano (Nitro Mega), inspired him to elevate his live shows and the goal with the unnamed upcoming project is to bring the joy. Cudi also said he tried to tap into an “elevated” version of the kind of big, anthemic songs his fans love, naming “Up Up & Away” and “Erase Me” and “Heart of a Lion” as examples.

“I want you to know that this s–t is not a game for me,” he concluded. “I work really hard to create new experiences for you guys sonically. When I say you have never heard anything quite like this from me before and that your minds will be blown, I’m not f–king playing games.” He said he could not even explain the vibe of the tracks, but assured fans that it is “some of my best s–t ever… I’m not f–king around.”

Check out Cudi’s video updates below.

Check out Cudi’s video update below.