David Guetta Slammed For Honoring George Floyd with Martin Luther King Remix

A good intention was apparently lost in translation when EDM icon David Guetta was recently slammed as "tone deaf" as he tried to remember George Floyd by dropping a Martin Luther King Remix.

The alleged insensitive attempt at honoring the Floyd and the Black Lives Matter cause occurred as the 52-year-old French DJ was in the middle of his ongoing virtual rave in support of charitable organizations working against the coronavirus pandemic.

Guetta then tried to give a "shout out" to Floyd's family and put on a track that sampled MLK's historic 1963 speech "I Have a Dream." The electronic music producer then commented that "the world is going through difficult times and America too, actually." He added that he made the special record in honor of Floyd, hoping to see more unity and peace.

Reactions to Guetta's track

The people of Twitter were quick to grab the David Guetta clip and pass it around the social media platform, with a user jesting "We've found it. The whitest way to react to racism."

Another user mocked him and said that it's what the late George Floyd would have wanted, "an EDM banger sampling Martin Luther King" followed by a raised eyebrow emoji.

In Guetta's defense, another Twitter user noted that there were a lot of crimes committed against his people, but David Guetta's music is up in the list.

The Twitter fiasco has also prompted Scottish DJ and producer Hudson Mohawke to defend Guetta. While he first shared the "I Have a Dream" remix with the caption, "Dono where to start w counting the levels of tone deaf and wrong here," he later defended his French colleague by writing: "Clearly he's not intending to offend and he's attempting to do a noble thing by raising some money for a good cause but the execution is so hilariously off key in so many ways it's mindblowing."

Other artists under fire

David Guetta is the latest artist to come under fire for a misconstrued act of honoring George Floyd, the African-American man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt in his neck for several minutes while Floyd was already pinned on the ground.

Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey also came under fire, especially from musicians Kehlani and Tinashe, as she shared footage of people looting during the George Floyd protests. Kehlani commented, "Please remove your Instagram post - it's dangerous as f**k and a very poor choice of a moment to post.

Even Madonna was not spared by the growing argument across online platforms, drawing flak as people found her son's tribute incentive. Fourteen-year-old David Banda danced to Michael Jackson's "They Don't Really Care About Us."

One Twitter user wrote: "having your adopted black son dance ain't going to force change to happen." Another user commented that the video had good intentions "but completely tone-deaf," also noting that dancing doesn't actually do anything, before writing "but thanks for trying!"

His death sparked protests in the Twin Cities, causing the takeover and arson of the 3rd Precinct where the involved police officers used to work. Protests against police brutality and institutional racism have also spread to other parts of the country, prompting curfews and the reactivation of National Guard detachments.

Major record labels such as those under the Universal Music Group (Interscope, Capitol, etc.) and Sony's Columbia Records have all expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. They will not conduct any business on "Black Out Tuesday," June 2, and release any music for the week starting Monday, June 1.

Tags

David Guetta, Hudson Mohawke, Lana Del Rey, Madonna