Former NBA star Stephen Jackson is calling out Lil Yachty over a controversial lyric referencing the late George Floyd. The Atlanta rapper previewed an unreleased track during a livestream with PlaqueBoyMax on Thursday (Aug. 14), spitting the bar: “Put my knee up on her neck, I went George Floyd” — followed by a “Wop” adlib. The song is expected to appear on It’s Us Vol. 2, the upcoming project from Yachty’s Concrete Boys collective.
Jackson, who was a close friend of Floyd’s and an outspoken advocate for justice after his 2020 killing, didn’t hold back. In a social media video, he tagged Yachty directly to make sure his message was heard. “Lil Yachty, bro. You been wack,” Jackson said. “But you think you saying George Floyd’s name, and trying to use his name in a bar, that’s gonna make people like your wack-a** music? That s*** weak… Don’t ever say his name, bro. None of y’all knew G. Nothing about him.”
The former Golden State Warriors forward went on to blast what he sees as a disturbing trend among some younger artists: using the names of the dead for shock value. “Y’all the only era that feel like demeaning the dead and saying that s*** is cool,” he said, adding that if the tables were turned, Yachty wouldn’t tolerate someone mocking his own family’s loss.
This isn’t the first time Jackson has defended Floyd’s legacy in the face of public comments. In 2022, he criticized Ye (formerly Kanye West) after the rapper falsely claimed Floyd died from fentanyl, a statement that led Floyd’s daughter’s mother, Roxie Washington, to file a $250 million lawsuit. Jackson emphasized that those closest to Floyd should be left out of opportunistic narratives: “Nobody asked you to say nothing about George Floyd, but you decided to say that on your own, so you gon’ pay the consequences.”
Source: YouTube
