Music executive Steve Stoute has confirmed claims made by podcaster Mal, that Drake turned down the NFL’s invite to perform at the Super Bowl twice.
The league has faced backlash after Kendrick Lamar was recently named as the headliner instead of Louisiana rapper Lil Wayne, but Stoute says that if Drake really cared about Weezy’s wish to perform at the event, he should have accepted the invite and brought Lil Wayne out with him.
“I will confirm Drake was offered the Super Bowl twice. Drake did turn down the Super Bowl twice. And I’m sure if Drake would have said yes, he would have brought Lil Wayne out at some point. He probably would have brought out Nicki. Which is probably why she’s upset [with JAY-Z], ’cause she’s not onstage,” he said on The Pivot podcast.
“He turned it down twice, which is fine. He didn’t want to do it. But nobody’s going to say, ‘Damn, why’d you turn it down? You could’ve got Lil Wayne on.’ Nobody’s going to connect that dot.”
Drake has not responded to Stoute’s remarks.
Steve Stoute is an American record executive. He concurrently served as Executive Vice President of Interscope Geffen A&M Records and President of Urban Music at Sony Music from 1999 to 2009. In 2017, he founded the music distribution platform UnitedMasters, where he served as chief executive officer (CEO). He founded Translation, a music marketing agency, in 2004. He co-founded the non-profit Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN) with R&B singer Mary J. Blige in 2008. In 2011, he released a book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy.