Lil Wayne will no longer play at this year’s Strawberries & Creem festival after he was rejected from entering the UK in a “last-minute decision” by the Home Office.
It’s been a week in which the Home Office has stirred a large deal of controversy surrounding its plans for immigration – and now it seems they’ve provoked the ire of many music fans too.
Especially those who were hoping to see Lil Wayne at this weekend’s Strawberries & Creem festival in Cambridge, which would have been the rapper’s first UK show in several years.
That’s because the New Orleans rapper, often considered one of the greatest of all time, has had his visa application denied owing to a prior conviction for gun possession.
In a statement, the festival said: “Due to extreme circumstances beyond our control or influence, we are very sorry to inform you that Lil Wayne is now unable to perform at the festival.
“Lil Wayne has been refused entry to the UK directly by the Home Office in a last-minute decision. We are deeply disappointed by this sudden and negative ruling.”
Rapper Ludacris has been brought in as Lil Wayne’s last-minute replacement for the Saturday event, which will also feature Tion Wayne, Mabel, Wilkinson and some other unannounced guests.
Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, was sentenced to a year in prison in 2010 after admitting drug possession, in a case which first arose in 2007. The duration of his incarceration appears to be the issue here, with the Home Office telling the BBC that whilst they don’t comment on individual cases, “Any individual who has been sentenced to a custodial sentence of 12 months or more must have their application refused.”
🚨 Strawberries & Creem Festival UPDATE 🚨
Lil Wayne will no longer be performing at Strawberries & Creem 2022.
LUDACRIS will now perform on Saturday.👇 Official statement and more info belowhttps://t.co/wc3UeTOtnj pic.twitter.com/KEM1sIX6xG
— ticketmasteruk (@TicketmasterUK) June 15, 2022
Lil Wayne was also found by police in 2019 to have guns and bullets on his private plane in Miami.
Authorities also reportedly found bags containing cocaine, ecstasy, oxycodone and nearly $26,000 (£21,400) in cash. Not quite the half-a-million-pounds worth of vapes and chocolate bars found on Oxford Street this week, although Wayne wasn’t charged with any drug offences at the time.
At the start of last year, however, President Trump pardoned Lil Wayne, due to his “generosity through commitment to a variety of charities”. That pardon of course hasn’t extended overseas and now Lil Wayne has been rejected from entering the UK. So much for strawberries and cream.
