Lil Wayne Ripped For His Response To George Floyd Killing: We Should ‘Place The Blame On Ourselves’

Lil Wayne's comments following the death of George Floyd have fans calling for the rapper to be canceled. His remarks about placing the 'blame' on 'ourselves' came during an IG Live with Fat Joe.

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May 29, 2020 2:31PM EDT
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A person walks past a graffito showing late George Floyd, in Berlin, Germany, 30 May 2020. A bystander's video posted online on 25 May, appeared to show George Floyd, 46, pleading with arresting officers that he couldn't breathe as an officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The unarmed black man later died in police custody. A series of demonstrations throughout the German capital, calling for ending of the social and economical restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The events are organised by groups of various motives, right wing activists, conspiracy theory believers and more, several counter demonstrations by left leaning organisations were also taking place. Anti-restrictions protests and counter demos in Berlin, Germany - 30 May 2020
Mayor Bill de Blasio, third from left, participates in painting Black Lives Matter on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower, in New York. The mayor's wife, Chirlane McCray, is fourth from left and Rev. Al Sharpton is second from left Racial Injustice , New York, United States - 09 Jul 2020
People pose with a new Black Lives Matter mural outside of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. Black Lives Matter mural, New York, USA - 09 Jul 2020
Image Credit: REX/Shutterstock

Fans are outraged after Lil Wayne addressed George Floyd in an Instagram Live with Fat Joe, suggesting that activists are also to blame for his tragic death — not just the police. “We have to stop placing the blame on the whole force and the whole everybody, or a certain race, or everybody with a badge… And if we want to place the blame on anybody, it should be ourselves for not doing more than what we think we’re doing.” Wayne said he believes that continued police violence against people of color may come from a lack of action after initial protesting. “Some people put a tweet out and they think they did something,” he said in the May 29 Instagram, which you can watch below.

“Some people wear a shirt and they think they did something,” Wayne continued. “What you gonna do after that? Did you actually help the person? Did you actually help the family? Did you actually go out there and do something? So, if I ain’t about to do all that, then I ain’t about to do nothing. I’ll pray for ya.” He went on to say that “What we need to do is we need to learn about it more. If we wanna scream about something, know what we’re screaming about. If we wanna protest about something, know what we’re protesting about. Because if we wanna get into it, there’s a bunch of facts that we think we know that we don’t know. … We scream about things that, sometimes, they really ain’t true.”

Wayne ended by saying that he’s trying to educate himself on the subject, though. Needless to say, people are mad at the “Lollipop” rapper. “Damn, Lil Wayne lost his touch. He is officially canceled #LilWayne over,” one fan tweeted after seeing the Instagram Live. “Taylor Swift with the hammer for white supremacists while Kanye West rocks his MAGA hat and Lil Wayne points the finger at us. The epitome of skinfolk ain’t always your kinfolk,” another fan wrote on Twitter, referencing Taylor’s powerful tweet to President Donald Trump after he threatened to bring in the National Guard to shoot protesters in Minneapolis.

Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck during an arrest. Pinned to the ground, handcuffed, Floyd repeatedly told the officer that he couldn’t breathe. He became unresponsive, and later died at the hospital. Four officers were fired after the incident, which was caught on camera by a teenage bystander. Chauvin was arrested on May 29 amid massive ongoing protests in Minneapolis.