Wed 1 May 2013
Lil Wayne Apologizes to Emmett Till Family: “I Would Like to Take a Moment to Acknowledge Your Hurt”
Posted by Andy B. under Life Beyond Rap , Quotes[25] Comments
When Lil Wayne’s controversial lyric, “beat the pu**y up like Emmett Till” — a reference to the 14-year-old African American boy who was tragically beaten to death for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955 — on Future’s “Karate Chop (Remix)” came to the attention of Till’s family, they were outraged. After they forced Epic Records to remove the line from the track and, earlier this week, pushed Mountain Dew to drop the rapper from their new campaign, Wayne has finally issued an apology to the family. In it, he offers condolences for the pain he has caused and promised he will not perform the lyric live, nor reference Emmett Till in future songs.
Read the letter after the jump…
Dear Till Family:
As a recording artist, I have always been interested in word play. My lyrics often reference people, places and events in my music, as well as the music that I create for or alongside other artists.
It has come to my attention that lyrics from my contribution to a fellow artist’s song has deeply offended your family. As a father myself, I cannot imagine the pain that your family has had to endure. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge your hurt, as well as the letter you sent to me via your attorneys.
Moving forward, I will not use or reference Emmett Till or the Till family in my music, especially in an inappropriate manner. I fully support Epic Record’s decision to take down the unauthorized version of the song and to not include the reference in the version that went to retail. I will not be performing the lyrics that contain that reference live and have removed them from my catalogue.
I have tremendous respect for those who paved the way for the liberty and opportunities that African-Americans currently enjoy. As a business owner who employs several African-American employees and gives philanthropically to organizations that help youth to pursue their dreams my ultimate intention is to uplift rather than degrade our community.
Best,
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.
Lil Wayne
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May 1st, 2013 at 9:08 am
ONCE PEOPLE GO STRAIGHT TO THE ENDORSERS AND COMPLAIN ABOUT THEYRE SPOKESPERSON/RAPPER THE RAPPER THEN PUTS OUT THE SORRY NOTE. ROSS APOLIGIZED 5 TIMES BEFORE REEBOK DROPPED HIM. NOW WAYNE BOUT TO FEEL IT TOO. LUDA FELT IT BEFORE WITH PEPSI.
May 1st, 2013 at 9:41 am
And that, Rick Ross, is how you apologize.
May 1st, 2013 at 10:10 am
HAHA right. this purp head did not write a single word in that letter.
May 1st, 2013 at 11:24 am
Actually its not, wayne apologized several months after the outrage when as noted in the article mountain dew dropped him and he and his handlers saw the rick ross backlash, and of course with a cliche filled corporate sounding couple paragraphs written by some rookie entertainment lawyer.
May 1st, 2013 at 12:01 pm
Brilliant, they’ll be no swearing in rap music soon, guarantee it, too many artists scared of offending the paycheque.
May 1st, 2013 at 2:15 pm
Well what song & what was the lyrics im lost can tell im not into rap
May 1st, 2013 at 2:37 pm
See the first line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlWcxYF19xQ
May 1st, 2013 at 2:49 pm
And the outcry regarding pu**y?!
May 1st, 2013 at 2:55 pm
People are taking the words of my beloved Hip-hop too serious, Rapping is a art and the very skilled ones has good word-play.
I never even heard of Emmett Till until today then I researched him and his story, so If anything Wayne was giving a shout out and keeping his memory alive. There’s parental advisory explicit content sticker on Rap/Hip-Hop for a reason
May 1st, 2013 at 3:09 pm
His dream is to uplift rather then degrade the community but his lyrics states otherwise.
May 1st, 2013 at 6:16 pm
I hope you are not serious about this…
May 1st, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Lil Wayne did not lift one finger to write this lame apology. Weezy, if you want to make references to Black history in your songs (more accurately, if your ghost writers do), I suggest referencing Public Enemy or BDP on how to do it right.
May 1st, 2013 at 6:25 pm
are u outta your f*cking mind? First of all, you sound like an idiot saying you’ve never heard of Emmett Till. secondly, do you REALLY think, given what you learned about Till’s story, that making a reference to that kinda violence was a “shout out!?” Holy sh*t! Your post takes the cake for some of the dumbest shit I’ve seen on missinfo, and I’ve seen plenty of dumb shit on here.
May 1st, 2013 at 7:30 pm
I didn’t see the word “apologize” anywhere in there. That was more of an “i’m sorry if my comments offended you.” A non-apology apology
May 2nd, 2013 at 1:42 pm
You must be 12
May 3rd, 2013 at 8:40 pm
give me a break, you don’t just go out and offend and just be downright rude do you? lets be real if this happened to your family member and rapped about in such a way as this you wouldn’t like it either
May 4th, 2013 at 1:02 pm
I’ve said Wayne is a piece of sh*t from the beginning. To his bittersweet credit though, I heard years ago that Wayne started taking pages out of Jay-Z’s book and not writing down a single lyric as he records them. The problem with that is that he’s an idiot who doesn’t have the lyricism Jay-Z has. Wayne is only about his money; he doesn’t care about black people, black history, or his own roots. He is a hip-hop sellout who only sees dollar signs.
May 5th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Great. I agree.
May 6th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Ok im gonna snap with this one, To Aborted Rap, truf, Blair, lady di and to whoever else concerned.
As Im from across the water London, Uk. We didn’t get taught about minor tragedies In black history month in school we did however learn about people in our culture that help change the way us black people live with freedom today.
In the shape of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and the list goes on.
I love my Hip-hop/Rap and have learned many things from it so In opinion no actually FACT Wayne was giving a shout out and keeping his memory alive.
2Pac name dropped Latasha Harlins many times she was 15 and got shot which caused the L.A. riots.
Emmett Till and Latasha Harlins both 15 and both were killed, I think you guys should do your research before you voice opinions I’ll be here waiting for your dumbass replies
May 6th, 2013 at 8:46 pm
Yep, twelve
May 8th, 2013 at 10:38 am
The people above that charged you with saying some of the “dumbest shit they’ve ever read” are right again and the fact that you tried to defend your first comment with more ignorance just speaks to your intelligence level. Someone’s name merely being mentioned in a song does not automatically constitute a “shout-out,” you damn fool. Not when it’s being disrespectful which Wayne’s reference clearly was. Wayne MOCKINGLY mentioned Emmett Till in the same context as “beating up pu$$y” and for you to place that in the same category of our late beloved 2Pac shouting out to LaTasha Harlins is disrespectful and uneducated on YOUR part so maybe YOU should do your damn research first. 2Pac’s song “Keep Ya Head Up” was dedicated to LaTasha Harlins and every reference he’s made about her in his songs thereafter was done in a respectful, tasteful manner.
If someone murdered your mother, cut her up and spread her body parts across the city… and then a year later, or HOWEVER LONG LATER, Wayne made a song using your mother’s name and referenced spreading her body parts like kitty litter, do you still think it would be a shout-out to your mother and your family JUST for the fact that her name was mentioned? No, you would be OUTRAGED and you’re a liar out of this world if you say different. Grow up, stupid.
May 8th, 2013 at 12:17 pm
Terrible analogy you need to work your similarity skills, you sound like a murderer or have been a close victim of one coz the stuff you are coming out with, spreading body parts like kitty litter don’t you think that’s super graphic?.
Ok being that the event happened 58 years ago don’t act like his extended family or even immediate family have been talking about him regularly up until now.
I purposely put 2Pac for the reason that I knew people like you would defend “our late beloved 2Pac”, At the end of the day life goes on hip-hop will become politically correct soon because of people like you that are ready to dissect every song you hear and take it to heart.
I’ll give you a tip that will help you in the future, If you hear rap lyrics that sounds a bit vulgar or could even contain “I’ll spread that bitches body parts like kitty litter” then don’t listen turn it off or delete its not mandatory for you to listen to lyrics that offends or upsets you there’s parental advisory explicit content sticker on Rap/Hip-Hop for a reason
May 8th, 2013 at 1:41 pm
The idea of me sounding like a murderer is neither here nor there and is just a result of you reaching. Also, if I’m listening to a song for the first time, how the hell am I supposed to know that I can expect these offensive lyrics to come about? You better believe it’s not a song I would ever play again, but I can’t PREDICT what this moron is about to say in his elementary lyrics. And it doesn’t matter if it happened 58 or 8 years ago, if Emmett Till’s family is still alive to see it as disrespectful, it’s not something that should have ever been said. And if your hero Wayne was going to disrespectfully reference it in his stupid song, he should at least be man-enough, artist-enough to ACTUALLY apologize for the ill feelings he caused. Shout out? My ass… If Wayne thought for one second that this was actually a “shout-out,” he would have said so in that statement. He knew he was wrong, he just refused to apologize for it. And here’s a little tip for you, Scholar, a “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” label doesn’t give you a license to disrespect anyone anymore than saying “I Keep It Real” gives you license to be an asshole. YOU could take a lesson from that.
May 9th, 2013 at 7:22 am
My only problem with Wayne is he apologize.We make light of tragic event after tragic event more time then I can count throughout our lives, so what is different about this? Titanic jokes, world trade center jokes, Anne Franks, etc
July 23rd, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Exactly why not a soul is dealing with watch and as an outcome the thing one should take care of right now.