Lil Wayne addressed his unexpected absence from the Cash Money reunion at the Essence Festival over the weekend. Although he performed solo at the New Orleans festival, he was notably missing from the 30-year anniversary celebration of Cash Money, which featured Birdman, Mannie Fresh, Juvenile, and B.G.
In a video shared on Instagram on July 7, the “A Milli” rapper explained why he did not participate in the reunion, responding to fans’ disappointment. “Funny story: I got hit up by somebody, somebody text me. I guess they had been at the show too long or something and they said, ‘You wrong. You know you should have come out. You wrong, Wayne. You had all these fucking fans out here. You didn’t come. You know you should have,’” he recounted. Wayne replied, “‘What you talking about? The afterparty or something?’” Without directly mentioning Birdman or his former labelmates, Wayne gave a shoutout to “all the artists that performed” at Essence Festival.
The anticipated full Cash Money and Hot Boys reunion didn’t fully materialize. Lil Wayne performed solo for about 20 minutes after Birdman and the others had finished their set. All except Juvenile returned to the stage for a final song after Wayne’s performance. During his set, Wayne replaced the Cash Money logo with the Young Money emblem. Former Hot Boy Turk was also absent, which Juvenile addressed on social media, stating, “It’s only one n-gga that ain’t in this bitch, you heard me? He brought that on hisself. N-gga did a bunch of ho shit, he can’t take it back. He got to fault himself for not being here.” Turk had previously announced he would not attend the festival due to “the business side of it.”
Earlier this year, a Hot Boys reunion tour and album seemed possible, but recent events have dampened those hopes. Wayne recently revealed on Cam Heywood’s Not Just Football podcast that he was unaware of any new Hot Boys album. When asked about the rumored reunion, he replied, “Shit, you just told me!” He added, “I ain’t been to the kitchen yet. I have no problem with going to that kitchen, but I ain’t smell it, it ain’t come through the window yet.”