Kanye West said he believed George Floyd’s death was drug-related, not the result of police brutality (Picture: Revolt)
Kanye West could be facing legal action over his comments about the death of George Floyd.
The 45-year-old rapper is in a storm of backlash after making a series of controversial statements in recent weeks, including branding Black Lives Matter a ‘scam’, being accused of bullying a Vogue contributing editor on social media and having his accounts on Instagram and Twitter locked over alleged anti-semitic comments.
Over the weekend, West appeared on the podcast Drink Champs where he made further eyebrow-raising remarks and discussed the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 when Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd‘s neck despite pleas that he was struggling to breathe.
Following a highly-publicised and televised trial last year, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
In his latest interview, West shared his thoughts on the horrific incident after watching documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, which was made by his friend and outspoken political pundit Candace Owens.
West told hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN: ‘They hit [Floyd] with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.
Floyd was murdered by a police officer who pressed his knee into his neck during an arrest
Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder after being filmed subduing the man in Minnesota in 2020 (Picture: Minnesota Department of Corrections via AP)
‘They said he screamed for his mama; mama was his girlfriend. It’s in the documentary.’
However, the medical examiner determined that Floyd died from ‘cardiopulmonary arrest’ complicated by ‘restraint and neck compression’ while being pinned down by several officers including Chauvin.
Floyd’s family also commissioned an independent autopsy, which found that his death was caused by ‘asphyxiation from sustained pressure’.
Now, a lawyer who represented Floyd’s family throughout the legal proceedings has spoken out about West’s comments.
West is facing mounting backlash for his comments which have outraged supporters of Black Lives Matter and the Jewish community (Picture: Getty Images)
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Lee Merritt tweeted: ‘While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.
‘Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.’
West has been at the centre of controversy in recent weeks, sparked when he appeared at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris wearing a White Lives Matter shirt.
After being locked out of mainstream platforms, the Grammy-winning rapper has since announced that he is in the process of buying right-wing social media app Parler to protect freedom of speech.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to a representative of Kanye West for comment.
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The rapper made controversial comments about the murder of Floyd in his Drink Champs interview.