Kanye West is being sued by the George Floyd family after the musician-turned-salacious headline grabber said in a recent interview, on the Drink Champs forum, that Floyd died from Fentanyl, not from choking by former police officer Derick Chauvin.
In a press release that came out on Tuesday (October 18), it was announced that Roxie Washington, who is acting on behalf of her minor child, who is the sole beneficiary of Floyd’s estate, had hired the Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law to file a lawsuit against West.
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That suit is seeking $250 million in damages after West’s Drink Champs interview aired earlier this month.
“Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death,” says attorney Pat D. Dixon III. Dixon III added that the goal of the suit is to “hold Mr. West accountable” for “flagrant remarks” against the late Floyd.
The suit is said to be filed against not just West but also his “business partners” and “associates.”
The suit claims that West made false claims about Floyd’s murder which amount to “harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.”
In the Drink Champs interview, West said that Floyd died of drugs, namely Fentanyl, not from a knee on his neck from Chauvin and actions by other Minneapolis police. Fentanyl was later found in Floyd’s system but reports say it was not a lethal dose. Floyd’s death was determined to be a homicide. Though other right-wing conspiracy theorists have said Fentanyl was the cause.
Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder in 2020.
The Drink Champs episode has since been removed from distribution. Co-host N.O.R.E. has since made multiple apologies for the comments in the episode.
In the episode, West made multiple antisemitic statements, as well.
“I don’t support none of it,” said the show host on The Breakfast Club. “I don’t support the George Floyd comments, I don’t support the antisemitic [comments]. That’s all I have is Jewish friends, all I have is Black friends. That’s it.”
A Drink Champs rep also released a statement, apologizing for “false and hurtful information.”
“Drink Champs prides itself on its ability to allow a free flow of ideas within the hip-hop community. That being said, unfortunately, the recent interview with Kanye West contained false and hurtful information regarding the circumstances surrounding the murder of George Floyd,” the rep said. “Integrity is very important and we don’t want to promote false narratives on our platform. Our goal is to celebrate the culture. Therefore, we had no choice but to remove the episode from distribution. We apologize to the family of Mr. Floyd and anyone else hurt by this episode.”
In the wake of the episode, West has also reportedly bought the far-right social media platform, Parler. And former President Donald Trump has reportedly called West “crazy.” West has also made other antisemitic claims, leading some to compare him to Nazis.
Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
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