Birdman Clarifies His Feelings On Lil Wayne After Essence Festival Set Sparks Rumors Of Animosity

Birdman has shot down the speculation that he dissed Lil Wayne at Essence Festival in New Orleans last month during his “Birdman & Friends” set. Reflecting on the performance during an interview with Gregory “Geedy P” Earls on Monday, the Cash Money Records co-founder said he would never diss Wayne. At the end of his performance, Birdman remarked, “I swear to God on everything I love — and I love nothing more than Ms. Gladys — I will never let my city down and be a p*ssy-ass n***a for nobody.” Wayne didn’t join him for the show and instead performed separately, leading to rumors of a rift between the two.

“I seen n****s was talking about, ‘Wayne ain’t wanna do this and do that.’ Wayne wasn’t even gonna do Essence. I called my son and asked him to do it because I was doing Birdman & Friends. He did it ’cause I asked him,” he clarified. “We always knew that Wayne was gonna have his own set. Because me and Juvie and Geezy and Fresh, we rehearsed together every day and we had our own set together. But we all knew that Wayne was gonna have his own set. He was only a surprise guest. He had done Essence two years in a row and he turned them down personally, and I asked him would he do it for me, and he did it for me. Shout out to my son Weezy, man.”

From there, he reiterated that his remarks to end the show were not directed at Wayne. “No, no. I ain’t got the heart to say nothing negative about Wayne,” he confirmed. “I love my son, man. That wasn’t what that was about. What I meant by that is I ain’t gonna let this game play me. The game done played a lot of n****s. I ain’t never gonna be a p*ssy-ass n***a to this industry and let them play me. I ain’t built like that and I ain’t gonna let my city down by being a p*ssy-ass n***a.” Check out the full interview below.