It’s been a rough year for Lil Wayne. After repeateddelays of his Tha Carter V album, the rapper split from his longtime businesspartner and surrogate father Birdman, filing a lawsuit for $51 in allegedunpaid earnings. Things have only gotten uglier since. While Wayne ripped intohis former mentor on this January’s Sorry 4 The Wait 2 mixtape, Birdman wasbusy nurturing the career of his new protégé, Young Thug, who rubbed salt intoa very public wound by titling his latest album Barter 6, and playing itsrelease show in Wayne’s native New Orleans. The not-so-subtle message: Thug isthe new Lil Wayne.
While Wayne is still one of the most famous rappers in the world, there’s nodenying that he’s lost some of his commercial clout. He’s no longer a six- orseven-times an hour presence on rap radio, nor a particular critical favorite. Ingeneral he just seems like an artist diminished, so maybe now wasn’t the besttime for him to launch a low-budget club tour.
Aside from the unflattering optics of an A-list star playing small, sometimesnot entirely reputable venues, so far the tour has made all the wrongheadlines. His tour bus hasbeen shot at; his security knockedout a fan; and on Sunday he canceleda show in Minneapolis because he didn’t want his entourage searched.
So when Milwaukee learned that Wayne would be appearing at not especially wellpublicized show last night at the nightclub Onyx on the city’s North Side,there were three common reactions: “Really?” “Why?” And “sad.” A few responses from Twitter:
Who booked Lil Wayne to come to the Onyx last night? That's disrespectful
— OG Bettie P ✨ (@BetttieP) June 23, 2015Lil Wayne at the Onyx?? He use to be bigger than that.
— Gladiator (@ToriGotVans) June 23, 2015lil Wayne coming to the Onyx would never have been approved by Birdman
— Rollin Stone (@milmadeit) June 22, 2015There was also some understandable doubt as to whether the show was even real. Thiswas, after all, a star who played to a packed crowd at the Marcus Amphitheaterthe last couple of times he performed in Milwaukee. Why was he playing Onyx ona Monday? For some rap fans who have been burned by no-show appearances atlocal clubs, this event didn’t just pass the smell test. But, as V100 DJ ReggieBrown documented on his social-media feeds, the show was real, and Wayneperformed as promised.
Here he is arriving, to the surprise of at least a few people.
Here he is sort of enjoying a Future song, well aware he's being watched by a whole lot of people.
And here he is ripping into a No Ceilings favorite. This looks pretty satisfying, to be honest:
So it may have been a far cry from the giant pyrotechnic displays and full band he brought with him on his last swing through Milwaukee, but Wayne showed up as promised, made it through security and delivered a performance. At this point in his career, that counts as a victory.
