Ye compared himself to George Floyd in an apology to the Black community: 'I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now'

• Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, apologized for claiming George Floyd died of an overdose.
• "I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now," Ye told paparazzi on Friday.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, compared himself to George Floyd while apologizing to the Black community for his previous controversial comments.

While speaking to paparazzi on Friday, Ye apologized for falsely claiming that Floyd, who was killed after the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin leaned a knee on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, died of a fentanyl drug overdose.

"It hurt the Black people," he said. "So I want to apologize for hurting them because right now 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."

Lawyers representing George Floyd's family previously said the family had been getting online hate after the rapper made comments about his death.

Adidas, along with several other companies, recently cut ties with the rapper, citing his "hateful and dangerous" comments which included antisemitism.

Ye said he had been "humbled" by the situation, which he previously said led to him losing $2 billion in one day.

Ye also appeared to walk back on some of his previous comments disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement.

He told the paparazzi that while there were elements of the Black Lives Matter movement he did not agree with, he recognized that the movement initially "made us feel good together as a people."

The rapper has been a vocal critic of the movement, which he has called a "scam," and he recently sparked controversy by wearing a shirt with the words "White Lives Matter" at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the phrase "White Lives Matter" has racist connotations, and white-supremacist groups have used the phrase as a slogan.

In confusing and, at times contradictory, comments to the paparazzi, Ye seemed to take back some of his controversial comments while defending others.

He said that he did not realize that he could be antisemitic until he read a definition of the term, which said it included speaking about "the myth of a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions."

"I didn't realize it was antisemitic to say, 'Hey, you know, I have a Jewish attorney, I have a Jewish record label, I have a Jewish contractor,'" Ye said.

His recent antisemitic comments included saying he was "going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE," and have been widely condemned by Jewish groups and public figures.

Ye implied to the paparazzi that those comments were taken out of context, claiming the definition of that phrase is "actually to get extra defense" and that he "needed that extra defense."

His comments were understood to have meant to reference the military term "Defcon 3," which means to "force readiness increased above normal levels," according to Veteran.