Lil Wayne Accused Of Mishandling COVID Relief Funds Meant For Small Artists

Lil Wayne has come under fire for allegedly misusing millions of dollars in COVID relief funds. Business Insider’s explosive exposé released on Wednesday (Dec. 19) reveals that Wayne, along with megastars Chris Brown, Alice In Chains, Steve Aoki, Rae Sremmurd, Shinedown, and DJ Marshmello, applied for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant during the pandemic and scored millions in additional tax-payer-funded monies.

President Donald Trump originally signed the grant into law to aid and equip struggling independent venues and artists with cash to help them survive the pandemic. However, business records showed that some of music’s wealthiest musicians took food from their relatively unknown and less economically sound counterparts.

The New Orleans native snagged $8.9M and “spent more than $1.3 million from the grant on private-jet flights and over $460,000 on clothes and accessories, many of them from high-end brands like Gucci and Balenciaga.” $175,000 of the bread was then used on “a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA” and “flights and luxury hotel rooms for women whose connection to Lil Wayne’s touring operation was unclear, including a waitress at a Hooters-type restaurant and a porn actress.”

Another expense totaled $88,000 in taxpayer-funded money was for Weezy’s concert at Coachella, Calif.—where Lil Wayne ultimately didn’t show up. The outlet attempted to get a comment from the rapper regarding the mishandling of the grant, to which he responded with “a sexually explicit overture to a reporter and did not respond to questions.”

Additionally, Chris Brown received $5.1M in taxpayer-funded money while his touring company received $10M. Through the grant, the singer also snagged $80,000 “to throw himself a birthday party.” Marshmello reportedly raked in $10M from the grant—the most for any single musician in the report.

As most independent artists were struggling and hoping to secure the money to survive, prominent artists like Alice In Chains weren’t reportedly using the funds for the betterment of those around them. The outlet claims the band’s members were paid $3.4M from the grant. However, “Scott Dachroeden, a guitar tech and tour photographer who had worked with [Alice In Chains] for years, received a cancer diagnosis in late 2022. The band, which records show did not spend grant money on benefits like health insurance, circulated a GoFundMe page on Twitter.”

Sources told the outlet that Alice In Chains “do much to help him financially,” and Dachroeden has since passed away from cancer.