Kanye West Apologizes For George Floyd Comments Following Lawsuit

Kanye West is finally acknowledging how painful his comments about George Floyd's death have been to Floyd's family and the Black community overall.

On Friday night, October 28, Ye held an impromptu press conference with a group of paparazzi where he attempted to explain the offensive rhetoric he's been repeating over the past few weeks. He claimed that he didn't realize some of the comments he made were anti-Semitic. He also admitted how he felt when he was called out for apologizing to Jewish people but not the Black community over the debunked theories he shared about Floyd's true cause of death.

“When the idea of Black Lives Matter came out, it made us come together as a people,” Ye said. “So I when said that and I questioned the death of George Floyd, it hurt my people. It hurt the Black people. So, I want to apologize [inaudible] because God has shown me by what Adidas is doing and by what the media is doing, I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now. So thank you God for humbling me and letting me know how it really felt. Because how could the richest Black man ever be humbled other than to be made to not be a billionaire in front of everyone off one comment.”

Earlier this month, Ye appeared on Drink Champs and repeated an unsubstantiated theory that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose and not because of officer Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck. At the time, he claimed to have saw the video and asserted the cop's knee "wasn't really on his neck like that." The comments enraged Floyd's family so much that the mother of George's daughter filed a $250 million lawsuit against Ye. The lawsuit was filed right before Ye lost his partnerships with adidas, Balenciaga and other brands.

In addition to the apology, Ye also speaks on the ripple effect of his comments about the Jewish community. He said he does not have any association with any hate groups, especially anti-Semitic groups who have recently co-signed Ye's publicized commentary. Despite all the offensive remarks he's said himself, he said he's only encouraging people to "walk in love."

See what else Ye had to say below.