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Did Lil Wayne Stomp on the American Flag?

Rap performer Lil Wayne sang his controversial invective against America in this video, crooning about the godlessness of America, while wearing a shirt that combined the holy crucifix with the dollar sign, and meanwhile stomping all over the American flag. The giant American flag drops to the ground and while Wayne raps, he steps all over the national icon.

“My country ’tis of thee / Sweet land of kill ’em all and let ’em die / God bless Amerika / This ole’ godless Amerika,” he croons through diamond-encrusted teeth, and sort of shuffles left and right over the flag.

For his part though, stomping the American flag wasn’t part of the show. He tweets that, “I didn’t step on the flag on purpose! It’s a scene in a video where the flag drops behind me and after it drop it’s just there as I perform.”

To credit him, he doesn’t seem to be deliberately stomping the flag, though he looks down at it often enough. Nevertheless, the Tweeterverse ain’t happy about it. As one person reported by the Washington Post said:

“Lil Wayne standing on an American flag for a music video? That’s disrespectful to the extreme.”

The footage was obtained by TMZ, but as Lil Wayne further explained, it will not be in the final video he is making:

“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’. The clip that surfaced on the Internet was a camera trick clip that revealed that behind the American Flag was the Hoods of America,” he said. “In the final edit of the video you will see the flag fall to reveal what is behind it but will never see it on the ground.”

Daniel June: Daniel June studied English literature at Michigan State University, graduating in 2003. Working a potpourri of jobs since, from cake-decorator to proofreader, his passion has always been writing, resulting in books of essays, novels, and children’s novellas.