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Like many, Stevie Wonder is not happy with Lil Wayne’s distasteful use of Emmitt Till’s name, but he can’t seem to understand why no one warned the rapper beforehand. Wonder believes that rather than recording the lyrics, found on the remix to Future’s “Karate Chop” record, Weezy’s reference to the slain teen, should’ve never made it to the track.

“You just cannot do that,” Wonder said. “I think you got to have someone around you that – even if they are the same age or older – is wiser to say, ‘Yo, that’s not happening. Don’t do that.’

“Sometimes people have to put themselves in the place of people who they are talking about. Imagine if that happened to your mother, brother, daughter or your son. How would you feel? Have some discernment before we say certain things. That goes for me or any other (song)writer.”

Weezy has been criticized for equating “beating up” a woman’s insides, to the attack received by Till, a 14-year-old killed in 1955 for whistling at a White woman.

Epic Records has decided to pull the track, vowing to re-release the song without the disrespectful line. The label reached out to Till’s family to personally apologize for the song. Wayne however has not yet offered so much as an explanation for what may have been an inability to comprehend how inappropriate the lyric was.

Photo: AP