UNITED STATES: Kanye West found himself embroiled in fresh controversy after he claimed that George Floyd had died because of fentanyl, an opioid drug used as a pain medication. He also added that the police officer’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
George Floyd, an African-American, was killed in mid-2020 in an argument with the police in Minneapolis, following which a video emerged showing police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Floyd could be heard asking the officer to release him as he couldn’t breathe. Kanye West made the comments in a podcast on Saturday while discussing Candace Owen’s documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.
Kanye West said, “They hit him with the fentanyl; if you look, the guys knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.” He went on to compare George Floyd with late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who had succumbed to cancer in November last year. Then he attacked the ‘Jewish Media’ who he claimed he had been blocked by.
“Tell me, could you even rally run this interview? Mav (Maverick Carter) didn’t even run my interview, they blocked me out, the Jewish media blocked me out. This s*** is lit, right? I am lit, right, I am lit. I put $140m into JP Morgan, and they treated me like s***, so if JP Morgan Chase is treating me like that, how are they treating the rest of y’all, I am outraged, people want to calm it down. I didn’t break the law,” he added.
Police officer Chauvin was convicted of multiple charges, including murder and manslaughter in April last year. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to serve 21 years in prison.
West’s latest controversy comes on the heels of recent controversy he had created after he wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt at a Paris fashion show. Kanye also had an interview with Tucker Carlson, who is known for his right-wing ideology.
In unaired footage from the interview, which was leaked, later on, Kanye West made a barrage of anti-semitic comments as well as bizarre conspiracy theories. He could be heard saying he preferred his children with Kim Kardashian to learn about Hanukkah rather than Kwanzaa as it would come with some financial engineering.
Also Read: Kanye West’s Twitter and Instagram Accounts Restricted Due to Anti-semitic Posts
