Lil Wayne caught a bit of heat on Monday when a video of him stepping on an American flag made the rounds on the Internet. But the clip, which outraged some, didn’t tell the whole story.
“It was never my intention to desecrate the flag of the United States of America. I was shooting a video for a song off my album, entitled ‘God Bless Amerika,’ ” Weezy said in a statement posted to his Facebook page on Tuesday (June 18).
In the clip, Wayne raps while standing in front of the American flag before it drops to the floor to reveal a number of residents from his native Hollygrove, New Orleans, neighborhood standing behind him. With the flag on the ground, Weezy continues his performance for the camera, in some instances walking over and on the stars and stripes — but that’s not what fans were ever intended to see when the finished music video hit television and online. The wide shot caught in the clip allowed Internet viewers to see Wayne’s feet, but the final cut would leave that angle out of the scene entirely.
“The clip that surfaced on the Internet was a camera trick clip that revealed behind the American Flag was the [‘hoods] of America. In the final edit of the video you will see the flag fall to reveal what’s behind it but will never see it on the ground,” he explained.
The somber track, featured on I Am Not a Human Being II, finds Wayne reflecting on the troubles in his life, including his 2010 jail bid. “The stars on the flag are never shinning,” he raps in a reflective tone. To appropriately capture his vision, Wayne went back to Hollygrove for the shoot, and it was all too symbolic.
“In most people eyes including my own who were raised in that environment, the Hood is the only America they know and the only America I knew growing up,” he wrote on Facebook. “I was fortunate from my God giving talents to escape the Hood and see the other beautiful places this country has to offer but most people who are born in that environment don’t get that chance. That’s their view of their America. That was Dwayne M Carter from Hollygrove New Orleans view of America. That’s who I’m speaking for in this song.”
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