Memphis Bleek Tells Lil Wayne to Ease Up, Urges Nicki Minaj to "Chill" After JAY-Z Diss

In the latest round of punctuated bazaar-hopping and hot takes, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne have inserted themselves into a bit of mild controversy regarding the NFL's choice to not consider Wayne for the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show in his native New Orleans. However, Memphis Bleek, a frequent JAY-Z collaborator and Roc-A-Fella soldier, has thrown his weight in the ring with some level-headed advice for both artists.

During an interview with TMZ on Monday (June 16), Bleek answered a fiery lyric from Minaj on the remix of "Banned From NO" where she spits, "NFL, killin s###, you was made to ball / You couldn't throw a ball and catch it at the same time / This n##### caught up in a whole lotta flame / And I don't mention your name on the hook, 'cause it's a different type of pain / Now the next ni## will say it in a whole 'nother lane / With a whole 'nother slang, with a whole 'nother gang / I flew the Cs but now we flyin' in a whole 'nother plane / To a country where the sky damn outta look the same." The line wasn't just a feather-ruffler but was widely interpreted as a direct shot at the NFL and, more specifically, JAY-Z, who has been navigating the league's entertainment deals via his Roc Nation imprint.

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Bleek, though, isn't throwing oil on the fire. Instead, he offered some street-smart wisdom and cracked a smile. "Why? If they fire us, they don't need no more n####," Bleek laughed. " So once we did, you ain't gonna be able to purchase that bag. Chill out. We are cleaning up, baby girl. You gotta come clean up with us.'"

While the lyrics contain tension, Bleek clarified that he has no beef with them. "I'm such a Nicki Minaj fan," he confessed. I don't get no bitch on the Queen of rap." But with Lil Wayne, whose exclusion from performing at the Super Bowl is so personal, Bleek loosened up a bit more.

"If you stop digging your hole, it would be [a possibility]," he said. "Antagonizing and talking about stuff … Let them come to you. The more you desire something, the more it flees!

It's not the first time Nicki has spoken out against JAY-Z's NFL involvement. She took out some heavy tweets last year, among them the cryptic, "One n###a took a knee. The other n###a took the bag," a reference to Colin Kaepernick and JAY-Z. She didn't let up, later noting, "Got everything in the world. Still spiteful & evil. Disgusting."

You can feel the tension below the simmering surface, but how Bleek articulates it doesn't seem like a warning so much as what a big brother might tell the family to keep it together. He's not saying that anyone's talent or justifiable bummed-ness is unwarranted; he's just questioning whether fighting from within is the best play when a lot is still in play.

So even as bullets fly in the lyrics, Bleek tells it straight: don't let emotions rob you of the bag. Most importantly, don't set fire to bridges built to lift everyone.

In the thick of this never-ending confluence of hip-hop and commerce, Bleek is telling people that sometimes, it isn't about tapping out but about knowing when it's time to shoot up.