Lil Wayne / Stratford Rex, London
Lil Wayne not a fan of Eastenders
Words Alex Marshall
There’s a lot of excitement around Lil Wayne’s show tonight, the London debut by the self-proclaimed “greatest rapper alive”. The 25-year-old from New Orleans has actually got reason to make such a boast, having sold millions of records in the States and got the critical acclaim to match. But - blimey! - it turns out he can’t even take an old-fashioned East End barney.
The show starts promisingly enough, Wayne coming on stage in a diamond-encrusted jacket, picking up a guitar and playing a solo to give the girls in the audience time to scream. Rock star impression out of the way, he launches into one of his many hits. Unfortunately, he barely gets through a verse before a local appears on stage and starts rapping next to him. The man’s dragged off by security, but somehow keeps on coming back.
The third time he appears, Lil Wayne loses it. “No one stands on my motherfucking stage! I’m not singing another song till someone brings me that nigga’s head.”
No one does and after two minutes of watching him pace around in silence, someone throws a plastic champagne flute at Wayne, causing him to storm off to boos.
Somehow the venue’s staff convince him to come back on, but only after 15 minutes of chastising the crowd and telling them the house lights will have to remain up for the rest of the night.
Wayne tries to restart the show - amusingly twice telling the audience who’ve just bottled him, “I would be nothing without you” - but gets through only four songs before fights break out behind him. Women in high heels appear to pull the men apart and yet more drinks are spilled.
Christ knows what was causing it, but Lil Wayne looks mightily relieved when a security guard dragged him off again. Twenty-three minutes is all he was on stage for. Somehow I doubt he’ll be back.
