Epic Records Chairman and CEO LA Reid has made the decision to pull Future's "Karate Chop" Remix due to complaints from Emmett Till's family regarding offensive lyrics by Lil Wayne.
As we previously reported, Wayne makes reference to the 1955 beating death of 14-year old Till in the song.
“I pop alot of pain pills. Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels/Beat that p*ssy up like Emmett Till.”.
Till was visiting family in Mississippi from Chicago when he was brutally murdered by two white men after he flirted with one of their wives. The killing became a significant moment in the civil rights movement
Both men were eventually acquitted in the case.
Airickca Gordon-Taylor, the Estate Heir & Founding Director of the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation wants Wayne to apologize for the lyrics.
"It was a heinous murder," Gordon-Taylor told the Associated Press Thursday from Chicago. "He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire and tossed in the Tallahatchie River. The images that we're fortunate to have (of his open casket) that 'Jet' published, they demonstrate the ugliness of racism. So to compare a woman's anatomy — the gateway of life — to the ugly face of death, it just destroyed me. And then I had to call the elders in my family and explain to them before they heard it from some another source."
Epic said it regretted the unauthorized remix leaking onto the internet and was employing "great efforts" to pull it down. The offensive lyrics will be removed from the song when it is re-released.
L.A. Reid
LA Reid personally reached out to Gordon-Taylor on a conference call Wednesday evening that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson to explain and apologize.
Jesse Jackson
"Once he got the point he realized this was beyond the zone and he immediately pulled it," Jackson said. "And he talked with both artists, who agreed."
Gordon-Taylor said the lyrics were devastating to her family. Simeon Wright, Till's cousin who shared a bed with his relative the night he was taken by the killers, heard the lyric for the first time Wednesday night.
"And he said the Ku Klux Klan would be very proud of Lil Wayne," Gordon-Taylor said. "And as tough a man as he is, I could see the hurt and the anger in his eyes. It just demonstrates to our family just how lost are our youth."
"We want artists who have considerable power to use their power to uplift and redirect," Jackson added. "It's not a matter of free speech, it's also speech that matters. ... These artists have culturally transforming power. Either they hurt or they help."
No word on if Wayne has reached out to the family.
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