Lil Wayne caused controversy with a lyric on Future’s “Karate Chop” remix where he raps, “Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till,” eliciting a fiery response from Till’s family.
According to Associated Press, Epic Records has responded to the backlash. After the Rev. Jesse Jackson reached out to Wayne’s management The Blueprint Group on the family’s behalf, the label has released a statement claiming that the remix was “unauthorized” and that it leaked online. The label promised to make efforts to erase the track from the web, stating that an official version of the song will be released at a later time that “will not include such references.”
“We regret the unauthorized remix version of Future’s ‘Karate Chop,’ which was leaked online and contained hurtful lyrics,” the statement said. “Out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till and his family and the support of the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. … we are going through great efforts to take down the unauthorized version.”
Additionally, a Facebook posting on the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation last night said that Epic Records Chairman and CEO LA Reid personally reached out to apologize.
After learning of the reference on the song, Airickca Gordon-Taylor, the founding director of the Foundation and cousin of Emmett Till, spoke out on behalf of the family and branded the reference “disrespectful.” “We found it dishonorable to his name and what his death has meant to us as a people and as a culture,” said Gordon-Taylor. “It was offensive not only to us, but to our ancestors and to women and to themselves as young, black men. I just couldn’t understand how you could compare the gateway of life to the brutality and punishment of death. And I feel as though they have no pride and no dignity as black men.”
Till was killed in 1955 while visiting his family in Mississippi. He was beaten severely and shot in the head before his attackers tied a cotton gin to his body with barbed wire and threw him into the Tallahatchie River. Two white men were acquitted of the killing by an all-white jury.
LIL WAYNE SUCKS ASS AND SO DO I.
Waynes still a “disrespectful little bish”. Good job EPIC!!
Take em down?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
TOO BAD IT AINT GON HAPPEN
Its out already, people already got it and will still be getting it
BEAT THAT PUSSY UP LIKE EMMET TILL YEAH!
This gon be blasting out my car like crazy this summer.
freeeebannndddzzz
and fuck the lupe section from KTT, bunch of fuckin herbs, same for barnett21324 dumb ass uncle tom chicaco whore.
TURN UP!
You look suspect on HHDX dissing someone from another site, go there and handle your business.
I betcha dress like him too…
shocking readers won’t get you noticed..being uneducated will not to that either..but blast that song as loud as you can,don’t forget your Jerome starter kit and 24# weels on your Toyota..
Kill epic, kill lil Wayne and all this white kkk hiphop mentality!!!!!!
Universal should pull all Lil Wayne songs and hire some underground talent.
Slow ether coming for this guy. None of his current stuff is any good either.
I hope this is a clear sign for you Stans out there…this lame has run out of shit to say, he’s been on this repetitive shit for awhile now…listen to D4 ITS HORRIBLE the nigga talks about eating pussy, skateboarding and blood ganging(what hood is he actually from???) over and over and over again. He prolly wants to take a vacation but his “daddy” got him working like a slave over there for skate ramps and shit…smh…this line was something no legend in this game would have said. Ya losin’ it buddy…
couldnt have said it better. and good point about him not really claiming any hood in particular. the only time people claimed “blood” only is during the 70’s when it was only one gang.
we need that Chuck D and Krs1 mix tape in Hip Hop
if this aint a example of how fucked up dis man is……
“unauthorized”… lel
Wayne leaked them himself, just like the past few albums
its not even his song fool.
I just looked up who emmett till was (Im not from the US) and its just ignorant to use lines like that, it’s not even clever.
Plus he has been rapping for so long, had so many multi platinum albums and still uses lines like ‘beat that pussy up like…’? His rap game isn’t really improving, is it…
Wayne is a coon, simple as that. Uneducated to the fullest. He though he was bein clever with that wordplay like he always do, and as usual a garbage verse came outta it. I BEEN wishin this nigga off himself since ’99.
For real, he’s a straight coon.. modern day minstrel show.
i find all his songs offensive
dats crazy how they jus now doin that…. they dont kno how many times he done said dat line or any other rapper…. they only doin that cuz its black history month….
Lil Wayne has the right to say whatever he wants (I don’t like him personally) but epic records is NOW going to censor what he says. People are fucking pussies some onion head white motherfucker is worried about what wayne says. Did emmit till get beat up, YES! Did lil wayne beat the pussy up, probably (who know the niggas a fairy) but come on when luducris says (“I’m talking shots to the face like Kennedy”(MVP) You dont see the Kennedy’s come out saying ban the song.
This is Rap, this is a mans game!
‘Did emmit till get beat up, YES!’
you clearly dont know your history you faggot. Emmett Till got a lot more than ‘beat up’, he was lynched. And despite what you may have been told about Rosa Parkes refusing to give up a bus seat, it was really this incident that sparked civil rights
You just got educated by a white boy from Northern Ireland. BITCH!!
yeah it is just a metaphor.
I bet you would turn the other cheek if Wayne made a rap reference to your mom being raped and left for dead. You would swear you’re getting rap props and love the attention.
I mean its Lil Wayne.. He has tats on his face and kiss mn…why would anyone think he had an ounce of dignity??? who cares about the past when your addicted and shamless
someone gonna need to speak to birdman about this.
This happened back in 1955. This is 2013. Seriously people. This is not a story. This is publicity for not only Wayne, but for the cousin to get on a soap box, hence Jesse Jackson popping to stir things up. If I were the label I’d say sorry you got offended, but don’t listen to rap music if you’re easily offended.
A by your logic you aren’t relevant because you were born before 2013. You are taught formulas and follow rules/laws that predate 2013. Look in a mirror and applaud your stupidity.
straight disrespectful…… FUCK WAYNE
It was a line in really, really poor taste and another display of how Wayne’s attempts at metaphors usually suck or don’t have much thought put in them. The label has rights to pull the song, but that doesn’t even matter now that its been released and people will share it all over the place on the internet.
Overall, this whole story just makes me hate Wayne’s songs a bit more, and this lyric in particular will make people even more dubious of Wayne, who really reaches for publicity these days.
I never back censoring lyrics or content but lil wayne is a fucking idiot for even saying some shit like that!
Even tho the Till family made excellent points and I actually totally agree with them cuz most music thats really gets played is like poison these days, this caving in and releasing the apology statement and all that junk is non sense. Wish they had this much power to straighten our government up geez. Complain to radio stations or Tv stations and those who control the bottleneck of whats played and whats not that push nonsense rap to our youth. We’re always attacking the wrong thing
Its unfortunate thefamily was offended. It reminds me of when Rosa parks was offended by the outkast song titled after her. Its not the same but it is similar. The only reason you drop emmitt till’s name in a rap song is to get people to think about what happened to him. And then you add a mutherfucker so the ignant niggas hear you.
Bullshit “its unfortunate the family was offended”. You don’t say something as disrespectful as that, and try to play it off by saying “at least it got people thinking of who he was”.
You sir, are the “ignant nigga”
wow poit. that was the most ignorant shit ive read in a while. damn
I drink a lot of Henney / beat that pussy up like Reginald Denny
lol I like that 1
“You are taught formulas and follow rules/laws that predate 2013”
Not sure what world you’re living in, but in mine I make my own rules/laws. Makes it alot more fun come voting time.
meanwhile lil wayne new album goes platium next month once again…why?? cause the ‘white folks’ dont care abt no Emmett Till…58 years later..nothing has really CHANGED!! (im a black american by the way!)
What?!?!?! Thats some bullshit. Censorship?!? Man. This should put all that Illuminati talk to rest. Anyone who thinks Wayne is in the Illuminati or anyone who even believes it exists has never read a book…..The old rich white man just set a precedent. Censoring lyrics. Wow. It is an offensive lyric but were talking about the 1st amendment here. Freedom of speech. IF we don’t have that, we aint got shit. Now the people who pull the strings and control everything are starting to censor music. What a shame.
Totally agree.
ya’ll niggas act like this the first time Wayne said this
“beating up the block
yeah, I get my emmit till on”
~ swizzy remix (Drought 3)
Exactly my point. Regardless of whether it is “right” or “wrong”, if the reference is offensive now why wasn’t it offensive then?
yall need to look up emit till. he didnt get killed for just whistling @ a white chick. he went behind the counter grabbed her arm and said come with me Ive had white girls before. I hate when black ppl act like this. So why come down on lil wayne? I know because It was a white person so lets get a big controvery going! had it been like the 10s on millions of black on black crimes they rap about no one would be talkin about it. hence the difference between decent blk people and nigggaz
So, if I try pulling a white girl in this day and age, will I get murdered for it?
so that makes it okay that he was so brutally killed? shut the fuck up!.
seriously guys we heard and seen worst and y’all be acting like this lyric is death .. other rappers have terrible references like ordering guns from Osama bin laden,Nazi and Hitler references ,Chris brown even whore a Bin Laden costume and ion see no one bitching about it but when its Wayne its bad ..this is music “get it” ? ,its ART with word plays .Wayne had no bad intentions ..so kiss his ass if you hating (wayne voice) …and btw BEAT thats PUSSY up like Emmett Till ,yeah ..come to your crib ,bomb it down like Bin Laden ,Yeah ..Got that AK on your kids,put em down like its New Town ,yeah ..I’m bad like Hitler,you niggas keep hating,im bouta go Nazi on your ass ,yea .. meet you at the movies with your bitch,shoot your brains down like you watching Badman …Hahaha INAHB2 is late,sorry for the wait