Ye is facing the Kan-sequences. The family of George Floyd plans to sue the rapper, formerly Kanye West, for falsely claiming Floyd was killed by fentanyl, not police brutality. According to a press release, Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter, will file a $250 million suit against Ye for harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress. (Washington is filing on behalf of her daughter, Gianna Floyd, the beneficiary of Floyd’s estate.) Vulture has reached out to a representative for Ye. Ye spoke about Floyd on the hip-hop podcast Drink Champs in an episode where he also made antisemitic statements. His statement about Floyd was blatantly false — Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed Floyd in 2020, has been convicted of murder — but went largely unchallenged by the hosts, N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN. The episode was taken down hours before attorneys announced the lawsuit. The press release alleges Ye made his claims about Floyd “to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates.â€
It’s the latest in a hate-speech-filled media tour for Ye. The rapper’s Twitter and Instagram were restricted over incendiary comments, and The Shop, LeBron James’s talk show, did not air a recent episode with Ye after he used the interview “to promote hate.†His comments came shortly before he announced he would buy the conservative social-media site Parler. The company’s CEO, George Farmer, is the husband of Candace Owens, a prominent Black conservative pundit who made a documentary about Floyd that Ye cited on Drink Champs and wore one of his “White Lives Matter†T-shirts. “Free Speech Rights do not include harassment, lies, misrepresentation, and the misappropriation of George Floyd’s legacy,†said Kay Harper Williams, one of the attorneys for Floyd’s family. “Some words have consequences and Mr. West will be made to understand that.â€