Pascal Le Segretain
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The family of George Floyd has announced plans to file a $250 million lawsuit against Kanye West following his comments on Floyd’s death over the weekend on Drink Champs. A Houston NBC affiliate reports that the lawsuit has already been filed. The FADER has reached out to representatives of Ye, and to the office of The Witherspoon Law Group — one of the firms that Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter Gianna, has reportedly retained for the suit — for independent confirmation.
On Saturday, Ye espoused the conspiracy theory that George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose on Drink Champs, a show hosted by New York rapper N.O.R.E. on Revolt TV. (The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office ruled Floyd’s death a homicide caused by “cardiopulmonary arrest” complicated by “restraint, and neck compression.”) In the same interview, he blamed “Jewish Zionists” for spreading salacious gossip about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her former boyfriend Pete Davidson, and referred to Drake as the “greatest rapper ever.” Revolt TV has removed the interview from its site in response to backlash against Ye’s inflammatory statements.
In recent weeks, Ye has feuded with Adidas and Gap over contract disputes, and with multiple designers, brands, and fashion personalities over the White Lives Matter shirt he wore and promoted at a Yeezy Season 9 show in Paris. Earlier today (October 18), Rolling Stone reported that Ye has been distributing more of these shirts to unhoused people in Los Angeles’ Skid Row neighborhood, with help from stylist and accused serial rapist Ian Connor. (Connor tweeted a video of the shirts being handed out from boxes in the back of a sprinter van Sunday night.)
Ye was suspended from Twitter and Instagram on October 9 following a tweet in which he announced plans to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” A day later, he sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson, during which he aired several other conspiracy theories, and several more were revealed in unaired footage brought to light by Motherboard. On Monday (October 17), the owners of the right-wing social media platform Parler announced their plans to sell the company to Ye.
