George Floyd's family sue Kanye West

The family of the man who sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the world in 2020 are seeking $250m in damages from the rapper, over comments he made on a podcast.

Kanye West. Photo by Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

The family of the man who sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the world in 2020 are seeking $250m in damages from the rapper, over comments he made on a podcast.

George Floyd’s family will sue the artist formerly known as Kanye West for comments Ye made on a podcast about the circumstances of Floyd’s death. 

Floyd’s former partner Roxie Washington and their daughter Gianna will seek $250 million in damages from Ye, his business partners and his associates, for harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress, TMZ reports. 

The Floyd family says Gianna, Floyd’s daughter who was six-years-old at the time of his death, is being "retraumatised" by Kanye’s comments. 

On the since-deleted episode of podcast Drink Champs, Kanye West inaccurately claimed that Floyd’s murder was related to fentanyl and an existing heart condition, and not due to the actions of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who was convicted of murder and manslaughter in April 2021 for kneeling on Floyd’s neck.  A nonlethal amount of fentanyl was later found in Floyd’s system, but his cause of death is officially determined as homicide.

A cease and desist letter sent to Ye reads, "Floyd’s cause of death is well-settled through evidence presented in courts of law during the criminal and civil trials that were the result of his untimely and horrific death. Nevertheless, you have maliciously made statements that are inaccurate and unfounded, causing damage to Floyd’s estate and his family."

President Joe Biden gives a pen to Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, during a signing ceremony for an executive order to advance effective, accountable policing and strengthen public safety, on the second anniversary of George Floyd's death. Picture: Getty Images)

A representative for the Drink Champs podcast, hosted by American musicians DJ EFN and N.O.R.E, told The Hollywood Reporter they had “no choice but to remove the episode from distribution”.

“Drink Champs prides itself on its ability to allow a free flow of ideas within the hip hop community. That being said, unfortunately, the recent interview with Kanye West contained false and hurtful information regarding the circumstances surrounding the murder of George Floyd. Integrity is very important and we don’t want to promote false narratives on our platform. Our goal is to celebrate the culture.”

“Therefore, we had no choice but to remove the episode from distribution. We apologise to the family of Mr. Floyd and anyone else hurt by this episode.”

Ye was restricted on Meta and Twitter last week for antisemitic comments, such as: “I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

Following the restriction, Ye agreed to purchase social media platform Parler, which is popular with conservatives and has previously been removed from app stores for failing to have appropriate content moderation.

Earlier this week, Kanye West doubled down on his antisemitic comments in an interview with US TV personality Chris Cuomo, saying a “Jewish underground media mafia” is trying to destroy his career, especially after he wore the White Lives Matter T-Shirt at Paris fashion week.