During an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast on Sunday, West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, continued his ongoing spree of controversial statements amid his antisemitism and “White Lives Matter” backlash.

Speaking with Drink Champs hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, West, 45, spoke about watching Candace Owens’ new documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, the premiere of which he attended last week.

Written by Candace Owens, the documentary re-examines the “racially-divided aftermath” of the death of Floyd, a Black man who died while being restrained by then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. His death sparked global protests and debates about racial injustice and police brutality.

The death of Floyd drew nationwide outrage after a video circulated online showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as he gasped for breath.

However, West went against the homicide ruling, alleging in his interview that Floyd died as a result of having taken fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used as a pain medication and noted for its potency.

“They hit [Floyd] with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” said the rapper and fashion designer. “They said he screamed for his mama; mama was his girlfriend. It’s in the documentary.”

As the reaction to West’s comments circulated across social media, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said that Floyd’s family is mulling a lawsuit against the star.

“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death,” Merritt wrote on Twitter.

“Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight,” the attorney said.

Other Twitter users also expressed their outrage, including author Justin Tinsley, who called West’s statement “nasty work.”

He wrote that “choosing to come to come out and say George Floyd died of fentanyl—when that was clearly a racist talking point, debunked in court, like we all didn’t see the video for ourselves and like it didn’t start worldwide protests—is nasty work.

“We’ll never forget that time in our lives. We’ll never forget the feeling of hearing Floyd beg for mercy but not get any. We’ll never forget Chauvin’s face the entire time. Nah, bruh. It’s not ‘speaking your mind.’ It’s just not true. It’s a lie. A premeditated one at that.”

“Choosing to still run it is ugly,” Tinsely said. “Everything isn’t worth the price of admission. You can’t claim to have the best interest of Black people and run that. Especially when dude is citing MF’n Candace Owens as a source. It’s no such thing as a refund on selling your integrity.”

Attorney and social justice activist Gerald A. Griggs also weighed in on West’s comments, sharing a video clip of himself on WWPR-FM’s The Breakfast Club to support his statement.

“To be clear @ye, #GeorgeFloyd didn’t die because of fentanyl, that conspiracy theory was debunked in court during a live-streamed trial,” Griggs said. “He died because #DerekChauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and forty-nine seconds.”

Activist Lance Cooper backed the idea of Floyd’s family suing West for his comments.

“George Floyd didn’t die because of fentanyl, that racist overdose theory was used to smear his name in court,” Cooper stated. “He died because Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes. The Floyd family should sue Kanye just like Sandy Hook families sued Alex Jones.”

Bishop Talbert Swan called West “trash” for his comments, before branding the musician a “white supremacy apologist” in a follow-up tweet.

“George Floyd was murdered. We all watched the video in horror,” wrote Swan. “He did not die of a fentanyl overdose. Kanye West is a pathetic, boot licking, white supremacy apologist. I hope Floyd’s family sues the ‘white lives matter’ shirt off his back.”

Despite West’s assertions in his interview, Floyd’s death was ruled by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office as a homicide caused by “cardiopulmonary arrest” complicated by “restraint and neck compression.”

Pulmonologist Dr. Martin Tobin testified during Chauvin’s trial that Floyd died due to a lack of oxygen from being pinned to the pavement with a knee on his neck, adding that a “healthy person subjected to what Mr. Floyd was subjected to would have died.”

Chauvin’s defense team told jurors that Floyd’s pre-existing heart disease, high blood pressure and use of fentanyl and methamphetamines documented led to his death.

An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family ruled that his death was caused by “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.”

The autopsy also revealed 11 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl in Floyd’s blood, though medical experts called as prosecution witnesses at Chauvin’s trial stated the level was not high enough to be deemed fatal.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021 and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison.

West’s comments about Floyd come after he appeared at his Yeezy brand fashion show in Paris wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter,” a slogan commonly employed by white supremacists as well as general opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The star later said in an Instagram post that Black Lives Matter is a “scam.”

A spokesperson for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation told Newsweek in response that “Black people cannot check in and out of the daily reality institutional racism plays in our lives.

“Convoluting the pillar of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and changing it to ‘White Lives Matter’ is irresponsible, destructive, and insensitive—it is charged with an absence to those who have had their lives stolen due to the very same system that is being championed.

“Our mission will never become a white supremacist, capitalistic commodity—a dangerous machine that consumes its own for profit,” the statement continued. “This is why Black Lives Matter exists in the first place—as a rallying cry, a movement, and an organization that powers that movement.”

Newsweek has reached out to a representative of West for comment.