Sure was nice of Eminem to cede so much of the SNL spotlight to new BFF Lil Wayne! The actual artist booked for the show was Em, although it was known ahead of time that Wayne would show up to do their collaboration “No Love.” For the second musical slot, however, Em ran through his wordy “Won’t Back Down” and then hopped off the stage altogether, letting Wayne do “Six Foot, Seven Foot” all by himself. We loved it, for multiple reasons: Jeff Bridges’s nutty “once again, Eminem and Lil Waaaaaayne” intro; Wayne, in his Warped Tour–chic Vans-and-V-neck outfit, looking more rapper-regal than most dudes who try way harder; Wayne replacing most instances of the phrase “y’all niggas” with “you guys”; and Eminem’s band, without time to hustle off the stage, enthusiastically bopping around pretending to play their instruments while the prerecorded beat ran through the sound system. But most of all, we loved it because Lil Wayne looked fit and energized and already all the way back to his pre-jail swagger, and he did it more or less unannounced on national TV. Check it out, at the 3:20 mark.
