It’s been a long time coming but Rapper Lil Wayne finally apologised to the family of murder victim Emmett Till.
Wayne caused controversy earlier this year when it emerged he had made a crude reference to Till, a black teenager who was murdered in 1955, in a remix of Karate Chop, his collaboration with Future.
On stage in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena last week, the 30-year-old performed a cleaned-up version of the track and replaced the distasteful line with the statement, “I apologise to the family of Emmett Till.”
The lyric, which featured in a leaked version of the song, infuriated Till’s family, who claimed the tune was disrespectful to their loved one’s memory, but their demand for an apology from Lil Wayne was not forthcoming.
Epic Records, apologised for the track, but the backlash against Wayne resulted in Mountain Dew dropping the father of four. Their brief statement said: “offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand.”
Lil Wayne previously addressed the controversy in a public statement and insisted he would not mention the Tills in his music ever again, but fell short of delivering an apology.
Emmett Till was just 14-years-old when he was brutally pistol-whipped and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman.
