Lil Wayne has successfully straddled the line between rap and sports for decades. The 2023 ESPYs were last night, July 12, and some athletic figures walked away with a higher honor than a trophy: An improvised name-check from Lil Wayne during his performance of “A Milli” to open the broadcast.
Lil Wayne seamlessly altered the song’s famous bars to include nods toward LSU women’s basketball standout Angel Reese, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, San Antonio Spurs 2023 No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama, and NFL Hall Of Famer-turned-Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders.
The mad dash ended with Wayne spitting, “I want my NIL so I’m goin’ back to college / Tattoos on my face, you can call me Dennis Rodman.” Wayne thanked the crowd before leaving the stage and welcomed everyone to the 2023 ESPYs.
If such a category existed, Wayne would have been the frontrunner for Best Sports Analyst In Rap. The New Orleans icon recently ranked LeBron James as the best basketball player of all time while visiting Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke and weighed in with empathy on Ja Morant’s public slip-ups. Perhaps most stunningly, Lil Wayne praised Eli Manning’s rapping during an appearance on ManningCast last December.
Watch Lil Wayne’s custom-made “A Milli” performance for the 2023 ESPYs above.
