Family Of Emmett Till Angry With Lil Wayne For Comparing Sex Acts With Civil Rights Icon’s Brutal Beating In Song

February 14th, 2013 - By Victoria Uwumarogie
Photo Credit: PNP/WENN.com

Photo Credit: PNP/WENN.com

I’ve been saying it for at least a year now. Lil Wayne has run out of clever stuff to say in his rhymes. About 95 percent of the time he’s talking about his love for the “nether regions” of a woman, or skateboarding, or Trukfit. But his latest few lines have everyone up in arms, particularly the family of Emmett Till, who found the rapper’s recent use of their late family member’s name in a remix to the Future song, “Karate Chop” to be extremely disrespectful.

Lil Wayne takes over the song around the third verse, and the line in question goes something like this: “Pop a lot of pain pills/Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels/Beat that p***y up like Emmett Till/Yeah….”

Nooooo Wayne…no. When Airicka Gordon-Taylor, cousin of Till and the director of the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation heard about his reference, she says that the family was appalled. While speaking with Dr. Boyce Watkins, she had this to say:

“To compare his murder and how beaten and how bullied, and tortured he was to the anatomy of a woman was really very disrespectful. We found it dishonorable to his name and what his death has meant to us as a people and as a culture. 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.

Our family was very offended, very hurt. Disturbed by it…Our young people they emulate what they see, what they hear, and what they’re immersed in. And then we question them as they grow up and become citizens and they’re supposed to be productive in society and they’re not productive. And society is already criminalizing our young, black men at every opportunity they have. So it just really concerns us that here you are using Emmett Till’s name in such an egregious way and you’re not having any respect for yourselves as well as our family. And that’s the biggest concern. We’re concerned about our young people as well as the image of Emmett Till.”

And a lot of other people were pretty disgusted too, including Jesse Jackson Sr., who, according to Rap Radar, said on his Twitter that the moment he heard about the song, he spoke with L.A. Reid (the CEO of Epic records, which the song was released through) and as of now, the remix has censored that part of the song and the label is allegedly in the process of taking down all signs of the song off the Internet. On top of that, Reid reached out to the family of Emmett Till to apologize, according to E! Online, saying the song was leaked out and that he hadn’t previously heard the lyrics. Epic also went on and issued a statement, which included them saying, “We regret the unauthorized remix version of Future’s ‘Karate Chop,’ which was leaked online and contained hurtful lyrics. 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.”

While their apology is all good and dandy, the person who really needs to get their life together is Lil Wayne. Why he thought this was clever, I’m not sure, but it was definitely a disgusting move, especially since, as Gordon-Taylor says, the rapper wouldn’t have the opportunities he does to say such deplorable things if it weren’t for her late cousin and the brutal beating he took that August night in Mississippi. Poor taste indeed, Weezy.

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  • DIVADCR

    As if this family’s wounds could never heal from the original story, along came the phone call that Mr Tills casket was found rotting in a shed when a decent employee turned in a greedy cemetary owner and his employees for digging up and disposing of caskets in his cemetary to provide space for more, this cemetary held the bodies of many prominent people, and the children’s cemetary was totally gone, here he comes he can say whatever he wants through freedom of speech, and no we don’t have to listen, (for those who will bring this up as an excuse!) however when one disrespects what our people died, sweat, shed tears and bled to enable us inorder to have those rights rights then thats when everybody needs to step up to the plate and shout out fall back! Anyone laughing or stating well you know comments are just as disrespectful as he and needs to read while feeling the pain our people went through to make it to this point and realise we are still in this fight, and are still not free from being judged, as we as a people are coaxed into judging each other daily just ask our president! Not one more record should be played, this one banned period and a letter of apology closed as well as open if they will at this point accept it to the Till family should come from Little Wayne.

  • Pingback: Entertainment Today: Lil’ Wayne, Meek Mills, Nicki Minaj, and Sex With A Grudge | Love, Life, and Relationships: Overcoming Emotional and Child Sexual Abuse

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/thesapphireempress96?feature=results_main A.J.

    Seriously? This definitely went too far, and is a disgrace to the memory of poor Emmett Till. Lil Wayne is a prime example of a Black person who has no knowledge of or respect for his history. His ignorance and disrespect (not to mention his mediocrity as a rapper, just sayin’) have been proven time and time again. My question is, what will it take for people to stop supporting him? It seems like no matter what he does, there are still people in his corner who insist that he’s good, that he speaks to them, that it’s not that serious, etc. For example, Cornel West called him a “very intelligent young man” and a “musical genius” (it was on CNN’S “Black in America”). People need to seriously stop investing in him and his music.

  • Novelistic08

    I was already sick of every song talking about beating that p**ss* up. That’s bad enough. But now add this?!? When is enough enough? We do not have to support entertainers that degrade. The little gremlin, and others like him, need to be boycotted.

  • Keisha Samoht

    I dont use this word, but is he retarded? What kind of person, more specifcaly black person would say that? There is no way shape or fashion of an explaination can be given. Oh, did he pop a Molly and it caused him to become extremely sweaty and to also haullcinate offensive comments about a boy who was murdered for whisleing at a white woman??!!! See this gives me more reason that i am not a big fan of his music… Its only February and this incindent will land him on the next edtion of People We Lost Respect for in 2013.

    S/N: i know my spelling is bad but my spelling is not my concern while im giving my 2cents on this.

    • Kahekili

      What kind of Black person would say that? Usually someone who cares little for education (knowledge) and thinks he can say whatever he wants. Lil Wayne may lose the respect of some, but most of those people will be those who have a brain and don’t listen to his music in the first place. He will still have millions of mindless fans to support him.

  • http://twitter.com/PinkBeckham Cherry The Don’

    Honestly Lil’Wayne does this to self and he should generally make a public apology because thats ridiculous he can’t keep doing this he act like hes not black.”

    • Kahekili

      An apology won’t mean he is sorry.

  • psylocke_2001

    “Poor taste indeed, Weezy.” When has this ignorant cockroach ever had good taste? Everything that comes out of his mouth is embarrassing. He’s like the humiliatingly (is that a word? Don’t care if Lil Wayne gets to be dumb I will be too) stupid cousin that gets drunk at family gatherings and embarrasses everyone. Remember that dumb ish he said about not dating dark skinned women? He’s a fool.

  • Shaybaby

    This is past disrespectful but should we really be expecting any better from Lil Wayne? Who thought referencing the brutal murder of a child & comparing it to sex with a random chick was okay? As appalling as this is what I don’t understand is folks aren’t just as upset with Rick Ross for referencing Trayvon Martin in Usher’s song- which is about sex. Both are dead wrong.