The following is a post about a new Lil Wayne album, ad, and Gelo remix. Let's start with the remix, and then we'll get to the more important business. Take that, inverted pyramid!
If you're not tapped into the intersection of hoops and hip-hop, Gelo is LiAngelo Ball. His brothers, Lonzo and LaMelo, are starting point guards in the NBA, and their father, LaVar, is one of the most prominent Stage Dads in modern sports and entertainment. Gelo (aka G3 Gelo) tried his hand at basketball too, but he's had more success in music. Gelo's song "Tweaker," which channels the sounds of classic post-Y2K New Orleans rap, premiered on WorldStar in January and became a massive viral hit, which led to a gargantuan record deal with Def Jam.
Now Lil Wayne, who emerged from the New Orleans scene "Tweaker" pays homage to, is hopping on the remix. "That's like hoopin' with Jordan," Gelo tells Billboard in a new video segment. "No cap." The Weezy-fied version of "Tweaker" is out tonight at midnight (UPDATE: hear it at the bottom of the article), but that's hardly the biggest Lil Wayne news at the moment. He's begun teasing Tha Carter VI, the latest in a vaunted album series that dates back more than 20 years, for release in June. And he's done so in a way that ties back to this weekend's Super Bowl festivities.
Lil Wayne made no secret of his desire to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show in his hometown this Sunday. When Kendrick Lamar was booked for the big gig at the Superdome instead, Weezy said it "hurt a lot." But now he's found a way to profit off of that disappointment.
Wayne stars in a new ad for Cetaphil, a lotion intended for sensitive skin, that will air in New Orleans during the Super Bowl. The beginning of the commercial dramatizes Wayne finding out he didn't get the halftime show, then presents him with the opportunity to do a Cetaphil ad instead. He goes around presenting the lotion to people in "dry" and "sensitive" situations. Along the way, the date 6/6/25 keeps popping up. At the end of the commercial, Wayne says he won't be attending the Super Bowl, and a sign reading "DO NOT DISTURB 'TIL 06-06-2025" is displayed along with a handwritten "CARTER VI." The album is now available for preorder with that date.
Below, check out the ad, then go back and revisit 2018's long-delayed Carter V, which famously featured a Kendrick Lamar collab.
