U.S. rapper Lil Wayne denied entry into UK for festival performance

Rapper Lil Wayne performs throughout the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Competition on the MGM Grand Backyard Area in Las Vegas, Nevada September 18, 2015. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) – U.S. rapper Lil Wayne will not carry out at a British music competition this weekend after he was declined entry into the UK, organisers have mentioned.

The five-time Grammy Award winner, who was sentenced to at least one 12 months in jail in 2010 referring to a gun possession cost, was scheduled to take to the stage on the Strawberries & Creem competition on Saturday.

U.S. rapper Ludacris will now carry out as a substitute.

“On account of excessive circumstances past our management or affect, we’re very sorry to tell you that Lil Wayne is now unable to carry out on the competition on Saturday 18th June,” competition organisers mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.

“Lil Wayne has been refused entry to the UK instantly by the House Workplace in a final minute determination. We’re deeply upset by this sudden and unfavorable ruling. We’ve acquired very minimal discover, and the timing of the choice is after all upsetting for all concerned.”

Lil Wayne’s efficiency would have been his first within the UK in 14 years, in keeping with the competition.

“Any particular person who has been sentenced to a custodial sentence of 12 months or extra will need to have their software refused,” a House Workplace spokesperson mentioned.

Representatives for Lil Wayne, whose actual identify is Dwayne Carter Jr., couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

In 2010, the rapper served eight months of a one 12 months sentence at New York’s Rikers Island jail stemming from a 2007 gun possession cost.

Final 12 months, he was pardoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump on his final day in workplace, after pleading responsible to illegally possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun when his chartered jet landed in Miami in December 2019.

He had confronted a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail.

Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Enhancing by William Maclean

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