Ex-NBA player Stephen Jackson took to social media to reveal that Lil Yachty called him to apologize after rapping a controversial George Floyd-referencing lyric during a recent PlaqueBoyMax stream. On the August 13 live stream, a song was played where Yachty rapped, “Put my knee up on her neck, I went George Floyd,” while he, Max, and the rest of the people in the room danced to the song.
In May 2020, Floyd was killed by Minnesota Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was filmed with his knee on Floyd’s neck as he called out, “I can’t breathe.” His death, alongside Breonna Taylor’s murder at the hands of the Louisville Police Department, sparked worldwide protests. Jackson, a Port Arthur, Texas native and a friend of Floyd, was a major public advocate after his death.
On August 14, the All The Smoke co-host angrily took to social media in a since-deleted post, calling Yachty a “sambo” for the lyrics. “You think you saying George Floyd name, and trying to use his name in a bar, that’s gonna make people like your wack-ass music, my nigga? That shit weak. Y’all the only era that feel like demeaning the dead and saying that shit is cool, my nigga. It ain’t.”
Jackson continued, “Don’t ever say his name, bro. None of ya’ll knew G, nothing about him. But y’all wanna say his name for clout. That’s some weak-ass shit, Yachty. Let somebody die in your family, we gonna do a whole skit about it. And see how funny it is, bro. Cut that shit out.”
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But in two separate clips, one posted to Jackson’s Instagram story, and another on his page, Jackson said that Yachty reached out and apologized. Jackson also sought for people to “bring some integrity back into everything we say,” adding, “To all the bloggers and shows that’s callin’ me about the Lil Yachy and George Floyd situation…I won’t be doin’ no interviews about it,” he said. “I spoke to him, he’s a smart young man, he’s winning for a reason…he made a mistake, he apologized, we moved on from it.” In another video, he said, “I took my post down about Lil Yachty cause I’m emotional about George. I told him it don’t make no sense to do a public apology. He understood, and he understands the outrage.”
Floyd’s brother Terrence also spoke out on the viral Yachty line, telling TMZ, “people just gotta be careful what they say,” adding that evoking his brother’s name is a “very sensitive topic,” and his tragic loss “still hurts.” Representatives for Yachty did not respond to a request for comment as of the publishing of this piece.
