Music

Epic Records apologizes for Lil Wayne's incredibly offensive Emmett Till lyric on Future's "Karate Chop" remix

by Aaron Zorgel

It’s only half-way through February, but it’s possible that Lil Wayne has already uttered the worst rap lyric of 2013:

“Pop a lot of pain pills / ‘Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels / Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till.”

Lil Wayne hasn’t exactly been known to drop the most insightful lyrics in recent years (“I’m fucked, let’s fuck / She said she on her period, I said yuck“ comes to mind) but an ignorant line he added to Future’s “Karate Chop” remix has earned the rapper some negative attention this week. In his verse on the “Karate Chop” remix, Lil Wayne used the name of an important civil rights figure as a punchline to a tactless lyric about having rough sexual intercourse. For the uninformed, Emmett Till was an African-American boy who was brutally murdered in 1955, at the age of fourteen, after allegedly flirting with a Caucasian woman.

Epic Records (Future’s label, not Wayne’s) is now apologizing for allowing the insensitive line to be released. The label acknowledged the fallout Wednesday night, stating that they “regret the unauthorized remix version of Future’s ‘Karate Chop’, which was leaked online and contained hurtful lyrics,” and they’ll attempt to take down the unauthorized remix out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till.

Airickca Gordon-Taylor, a cousin of Till, told the Chicago Sun Times that her family is expecting an apology directly from Lil Wayne. So far, there’s been no comment from Weezy’s camp, but here’s hoping he does the right thing. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s him.