However, Dee-1 said he is able to separate “the man from the message” and that he can love Lil Wayne as a man while saying his message is one that should not be celebrated. “When we have artists, Lil Wayne or anybody else,” he said, “who consistently want to glorify murder and glorify drug dealing, glorify disrespecting women—when this is the message in the music, it’s just like, ok, no one can stop you from saying that in your music.”
But when it comes to deciding what to platform at the Super Bowl, “I don’t have this blind loyalty just because somebody is from New Orleans,” Dee-1 said. There is no problem with having love for others, but in the end people are going to have to choose to get behind a message that is glorifying to God or one that is not.
“This is why you should never love your city more than you love God,” said Dee-1 in his Sept. 12 post. “So Kendrick Lamar shouted me out in his new song, and honestly, it’s been life-changing already in the past 24 hours. That’s the elevation. At the same time, now comes the condemnation.”
The artist referenced responses from people who are angry about his opinion on Lil Wayne. Some are “making diss tracks about me,” he said. “They got people sayin’ I’m canceled from the city. They got people sayin’ I better not come back to the city. People are cool with making videos mad at what I’m standing on when it’s the same thing I been standing on since ya’ll met me.” He included screenshots in the background of the examples he was referring to.
“So the biggest rapper in the world is saluting me for my character, and at the same time these people in my city trying to cancel me for my character. The same character that’s leading to my elevation is leading to my condemnation,” said Dee-1. “Thankfully, I’m just gonna keep being me, keep serving God. That’s what got me here, and Imma just be thankful for every part that come along with this journey, no matter what it entails.”
