JW Lucas, a music producer for hip-hop acts such as DaBaby and Lil Uzi Vert, took to Twitter to share his opinion on Breonna Taylor‘s violent death.
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“Why is the world asking for justice for #BreonnaTaylor…ofcourse she shouldn’t have lost her life…. but do you realize that she was involved with multiple drug dealers who were using her house as a trap spot? If you sign up for that life there are consequences,” the producer wrote in a now-deleted Tweet.
Screenshots of the statement were captured and uploaded by HOLLYWOOD UNLOCKED on Instagram.
Activist Tamika Mallory also stepped into the producer’s mentions in rebuttal to his statements in defense of Taylor. Despite deleting the initial tweet, he attempted to clarify his stance with a disclaimer on drug-dealing to which Mallory immediately shot down.
The attempted explanation was also met with critique and correction from Marc Lamont Hill who questioned the producer’s motives in the misinformed tweet.
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Rising artist Jack Harlow, a rapper out of Louisville, Ky –the city where Taylor was killed–, currently sits at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the song “WHATS POPPIN” which JW Lucas claims production credit in his Twitter bio. The song also features DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne.
The rapper however allegedly says the producer did not work on the track. In a now-deleted tweet, Harlow claims the song did not include his work.
SOHH reports the Kentucky artist wrote, “I’ve never met or spoken to that JW Lucas person. And he didn’t even produce WHATS POPPIN. Jetson and Pooh made it. That’s all,” before deleting.
The producer offered an apology on Instagram.
“Some times pure intent can be the path to hell. One thing I’m not going let people say is that I am a racist. I fight for Black people every day of my life, my comment was designed to ask if this case is being politicized for political propaganda purposes and I was wrong to speak on it,” he writes in the caption of a longer apology.
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