S. Samuel
With the Emmett Till debate far from over, SOHH reached out to "Karate Chop" producer Metro Boomin to find out his take to Lil Wayne's reference and Future standing up for Weezy F. Baby.
While Metro knows Wayne meant no harm in the line, he did acknowledge how it could have been taken the wrong way.
“I see it as really a double-edged sword,” Metro told SOHH. “Of course there’s going to be a negative reaction because of how graphic and the way Wayne presented it. Even though he wasn’t really disrespecting Emmett Till, because I know he didn’t have those intentions, but I can see how his family can take offense to it. But at the same time, I know there’s plenty of kids, even my generation who didn’t even know who Emmett Till was. I did, that was easy, but I’m pretty sure they know now because with it being a hot record and having slick lines, you know people hear things and want to Google it. So they’re Googling, ‘Who’s Emmett Till?’ I know people definitely know who he is now if they didn’t before.” (SOHH)
In a recent interview, the 19-year-old hitmaker revealed Wayne’s controversial line should not have come out.
He says that Wayne sent the verse to him and Future to hear beforehand in Atlanta. Upon hearing the Emmitt Till reference, Metro knew it would be viewed as too controversial and wanted to nix the line, saying, “Absolutely. We didn’t even intend for it to come out like that.” The producer and current Morehouse student says that those involved with the song “took the line out” but a hacker of sorts released it online. Metro shared, “It got ripped. I’m not even going to say his name. He had ripped the song off the video director’s…I guess the video director fell asleep uploading the video, to his Vimeo. He [the ripper] always checks the Vimeo for content and one day he lucked up on the f*cking ‘Karate Chop’ video and he ripped the one with the Wayne verse and put it out.” (VIBE)
This week, Future took a positive approach to the backlash Wayne’s “Karate Chop” remix bars created.
“We did the song with great intentions,” Future said in an interview. “I never thought it was going to get so much attention. But I think, overall, with the whole situation, he did bring light, in a positive way, to what happened. Even though they might thought it was negative, he brought positive energy to the situation because a lot of people don’t know, my dad didn’t even know who Emmett was. He’s thinking I’m talking about Emmitt Smith. … He raised awareness to people who didn’t even know who Emmett Till is to young kids who didn’t even know what happened to him. … After Lil Wayne brought light to it, they had to go and do their research.” (“Big Boy’s Neighborhood”)
Despite everyone’s explanation of no ill intent being attached to the record, the Young Money boss ended up losing his Pepsi Co Inc endorsement.
PepsiCo is cutting its ties with Lil Wayne after the rapper made a crude reference to civil rights martyr Emmett Till in a song. Lil Wayne, one of the biggest stars in pop music, had a deal to promote the company’s Mountain Dew soda. Earlier this week, PepsiCo also pulled an online ad for the neon-colored soda that was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women. The ad was developed by rapper Tyler, the Creator. (Billboard)
