What did Kanye say about George Floyd? Rapper could face lawsuit in wake of fentanyl remarks

American rapper Kanye West has made some controversial remarks over the death of George Floyd. He could now face a lawsuit from the latter's family.

During his appearance on the Drink Champs podcast on October 16, 2022, the 45-year-old star stated that Floyd passed away from drugs and not due to suffocation caused by a police officer's knee.

While discussing the recently viewed documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM made by political commentator Candace Owens, West said:

“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes. They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

George Floyd passed away in May 2020 in Minneapolis after he got into an altercation with a white policeman.

A video that went viral over the internet showed Floyd being held and restrained on the ground by former police officer Derek Chauvin. The cop placed his knee and continued to apply pressure on George's neck for more than nine minutes despite the latter claiming not to be able to breathe.

Floyd ultimately died due to a lack of oxygen, which caused heart failure and brain damage. The officer responsible, Chauvin, was sentenced to 21 years of jail time in April 2021 after being found guilty of murdering George.

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George Floyd's family was not happy with Kanye's statements

After Kanye West's comments about George Floyd's death went viral, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt took to his Twitter handle to reveal that the deceased's family might sue him for spreading false information.

On October 17, Merritt tweeted:

"While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death. Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight."

During the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, medical experts testified that despite having evidence of fentanyl in his blood, Floyd passed away from a lack of oxygen caused by the knee on his neck. Moreover, the coroner's report confirmed in ruling Floyd's death a murder.

In the same podcast interview, Kanye West compared George Floyd to designer Virgil Abloh, who died in November 2021:

“This white company Louis Vuitton is now making statues of him as a martyr, and we don’t know why exactly [he died], they said it was cancer."

He also attacked the "Jewish media," just days after getting restricted from his Twitter and Instagram handles for spreading anti-Semitic thoughts over platforms:

“Tell me could you even rally run this interview? Mav (Maverick Carter) didn’t even run my interview, they blocked me out, the Jewish media blocked me out. This shit is lit, right? I am lit right, I am lit.”

Kanye West has been entangled in a series of controversies, which started with him wearing a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt to the Paris Fashion Week.