Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Selection, Was Lil Wayne Snubbed? & Beyoncé’s CMA Shut-Out: ‘Billboard Unfiltered’

Another eventful week is in the books, especially for Billboard, which hosted our 2024 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event last Thursday (Sept. 5) to kick off an action-packed weekend.

Kendrick Lamar shook up the hip-hop zeitgeist when he was announced as the first-ever solo headlining act for the Super Bowl halftime show when SB LIX comes to New Orleans in February 2025.

Not everyone was happy for K. Dot as some like Nicki Minaj, Birdman and Master P took issue with the NFL overlooking Lil Wayne in his hometown.

The Billboard Unfiltered crew broke the entire situation down on Thursday (Sept. 12) with staff writer Kyle Denis and deputy director, editorial Damien Scott totally onboard with Kendrick getting the nod.

“I’ve always wanted Kendrick to do the Super Bowl,” Denis began. “Now he has the momentum to go make this another career-defining performance for himself. He’s one of our greatest performers… For me, there was absolutely no controversy… He has the catalog, he has the ability. If there’s someone I trust to be our first solo rap headliner, it’s absolutely Kendrick Lamar.”

Scott agreed: “It’s amazing and fun to have an artist who is in the midst of their peak headline the Super Bowl. From a perspective, we’ve never had that… Kendrick had a No. 1 song this year and he’s had one of the most exciting years of his career this year. It’s dope to have it feel so current.”

He also championed him as the “No. 1 rapper right now” and believes K. Dot is in album mode so there could be even more tunes on the way. It should be noted that the episode was recorded shortly before Lamar released an untitled track to his Instagram on Wednesday night (Sept. 11).

“It felt so ridiculous,” Scott continued of Minaj’s rant. “It felt so disingenuous and coordinated that it was laughable to a point. I think the larger outrage was a domino effect. I think people were outraged because people were outraged.”

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album was shut out of nominations at the 2024 Country Music Awards, which sparked outrage from the Beyhive earlier this week.

Kyle Denis believes if Bey’s goal was to get CMA nominations, she would’ve made a different album that was more geared toward strictly being country.

“We’re missing the point of Cowboy Carter was in general. If Beyoncé wanted to, she could have gotten CMA nominations,” he said. “If she would have just dropped a traditional Nashville-made 12-track country album, no hip-hop stuff, no R&B stuff. It would have been 12 protectors… She’s 30 years in, she knows what the deal is for awards and stuff like that. That is not what Cowboy Carter is.”

Watch the entire episode above.