Kanye West believes George Floyd was killed not by a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes, but from the deadly painkiller fentanyl.
The Chicago rap mogul made the claim during an explosive Drink Champs interview that aired over the weekend, not long after he branded Black Lives Matter — the racial justice movement that gained worldwide traction following Floyd’s death in 2020 — a “scam.”
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Kanye, who has admitted he’s never read a book, cited The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, the new documentary from his friend and rightwing commentator Candace Owens. He attended the film’s premiere in Nashville, Tennessee last week alongside Ray J, Kid Rock and others.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put up. One of the things that his two roommates said was, ‘They want a tall guy like me.’ And the day when he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes… They hit him with the fentanyl,” Ye said roughly 15 minutes into the three-and-a-half-hour interview.
“If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” he added, referencing the viral video of disgraced cop Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd. “When he said ‘Mama,’ Mama is his girlfriend. They said he screamed for his ‘Mama’; Mama was his girlfriend — it’s in the documentary.”
Kanye West then went on to say George Floyd reminded him of his late collaborator, Virgil Abloh, whose death he has also cast doubt on. Earlier this month, Ye accused LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault of “killing” the beloved designer, who passed away due to cancer in November 2021.
“But something that hit me that fucked me up when I was watching the documentary and it said, ‘They want a tall guy like me.’ When I looked at that image of him — this tall Black dude with the bald head — he reminded me of somebody else,” Kanye continued. “Who you think he reminded me of? He reminded me of Virgil.
“I’m not finna cry in front of y’all ’cause that’s how they get me. But I know that we lost him, and I know that this white company, Louis Vuitton, is now making statues of him, like as a martyr. And we don’t know why exactly — they say it’s cancer.”
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A toxicology report revealed George Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death. During Chauvin’s trial, the defense blamed the drug for his loss of oxygen — a narrative also spouted by opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement in an effort to discredit the circumstances of his death.
However, forensic toxicologist Dr. Daniel Isenschmid presented data during the trial showing that the level of fentanyl found in Floyd’s blood wasn’t enough to be considered fatal.
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Furthermore, Dr. Martin Tobin — an intensive care doctor and expert in pulmonary medicine — said during the trial that Floyd’s breathing did not slow down enough for the fentanyl to have been a factor in his death.
Floyd’s death was ultimately ruled a homicide, with Chauvin being sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison on murder charges.
Kanye West’s comments about George Floyd’s death were met with outrage and condemnation by fellow rappers and those close to George Floyd’s family.
Boosie Badazz, who was previously outspoken about the “White Lives Matter” shirt Kanye wore at his Yeezy Season 9 show in Paris earlier in October, slammed the DONDA rapper in a series of impassioned tweets.
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“@kanyewest U REALLY HAVE A DEEP HATRED N YOUR HEART FOR BLACK PEOPLE ‼️” he fumed. “first you said slavery was a choice, then white lives matter , now George Floyd.N AINT NOBODY GO TELL YO ASS YOU SICK FOR DOING THIS TO OUR RACE smh WELL I AM #justdoit If u think u white JUST DO IT ‼️
“@kanyewest THE HATRED YOU HAVE FOR BLACKS IS SAD. N they STILL SUPPORT YOUR COON ASS. First Slavery was a choice,white lives matter,now George Floyd etc.N ITS SAD THAT BLACKS WITH A PLATFORM AINT TELLING U SHIT for ATTACKING OUR RACE LIKE U DO #WELLIAM U SICK FRFR.”
He added: “Tryin to shit on GF N FUCK UP HIS GLORY SMH #really I THINK U ON FENTANYL.”
@kanyewest U REALLY HAVE A DEEP HATRED N YOUR HEART FOR BLACK PEOPLE ‼️first you said slavery was a choice, then white lives matter , now George Floyd.N AINT NOBODY GO TELL YO ASS YOU SICK FOR DOING THIS TO OUR RACE smh WELL I AM #justdoit If u think u white JUST DO IT ‼️
— Boosie BadAzz (@BOOSIEOFFICIAL) October 16, 2022
@kanyewest THE HATRED YOU HAVE FOR BLACKS IS SAD. N they STILL SUPPORT YOUR COON ASS. First Slavery was a choice,white lives matter,now George Floyd etc.N ITS SAD THAT BLACKS WITH A PLATFORM AINT TELLING U SHIT for ATTACKING OUR RACE LIKE U DO #WELLIAM U SICK FRFR
— Boosie BadAzz (@BOOSIEOFFICIAL) October 16, 2022
Tryin to shit on GF N FUCK UP HIS GLORY SMH #really I THINK U ON FENTANYL
— Boosie BadAzz (@BOOSIEOFFICIAL) October 16, 2022
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson, who became friends with Floyd while growing up in Texas and has been a vocal advocate in the fight for justice over his death, expressed his own dismay at Kanye’s remarks on Instagram.
“You know everybody sent me this video. Man, listen,” he said in a video. “The better thing to do is call his daughter or mother, call his cousin Woo. Talk to people who knew him his whole life. When he was on hard times, talk to the people who picked him up … That’s people you need to talk to.
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“Don’t talk to opportunists because that’s what you doing. ‘Cause the same time when all this George Floyd shit was going on, everybody was screaming, ‘George Floyd this, George Floyd that!’ ‘Cause everybody was trying to make money off somebody else’s pain.”
He continued: “But that ain’t the hustle no more. The new hustle is talking about him and dissing him. All that shit is weak. All y’all clout chasing, all y’all look sad.”
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Jackson addressed Ye directly in his caption, writing: “It’s all noted. To say u a Legend in music @kanyewest it’s sad that u still gotta talk about other people lives to be relevant is wack. Its really sad u doing all this over some ‘Pussy’. Tender dick ass n-gga.”
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