Lil Wayne was absent from Hot Boys reunion at ‘Essence’ Festival

Lil Wayne made a surprise appearance Friday at the Essence Festival, but it wasn’t for the highly anticipated Hot Boys reunion. Instead, he hopped onstage on behalf of “Young Money f****** Records.”

Wayne took the stage after the highly teased celebration of Cash Money Records, which saw Birdman, Juvenile, B.G. and Mannie Fresh unite for the first time in 20 years. Replacing the Cash Money Record logo with a Young Money symbol, he said, “My name is Tunechi. I’m here on behalf of Young Money f****** Records.” He then performed a 20-minute set, before all except Juvenile got back onstage for a final song.

Wayne seemingly addressed his absence on Instagram, saying, “Funny story: I got hit up by somebody, somebody text me. I guess they had been at the show too long or something and they said, ‘You wrong. You know you should have came out. You wrong, Wayne. You had all these f***** fans out here. You didn’t come. You know you should have.’” 

“I’m like, ‘What you talking about? The afterparty or something?’” Weezy replied. 

Also noticeably absent from the Hot Boys reunion was Turk, who Juvenile later explained was the cause of his own absence.

“It’s only one n**** that ain’t in this b****, you heard me?” said Juvenile. “He brought that on hisself. N**** did a bunch of ho s***, he can’t take it back. He got to fault himself for not being here.”