One of Houston’s biggest rappers revealed his anguish seeing a video of his close friend George Floyd crying for his late mother as he suffocated under the knee of a Minnesota cop.
Cal Wayne says he saw Floyd as a big brother, growing up with him in the Houston projects and even living with him aged 11 when Wayne’s mother went to jail.
The rap star said it broke him to hear in a video Floyd pinned to the ground in a violent arrest by four officers, crying out for his mother Sissy, who died about 18 months ago.
‘I woke up yesterday. I had some texts on my phone asking me about my brother, and as I was reading it my wife ran in the door and snatched the phone out my hand,’ Wayne, 38, told DailyMail.com.
Cal Wayne says he saw George Floyd (pictured together) as a big brother, growing up with him in the Houston projects and even living with him aged 11 when Wayne’s mother went to jail
Cal Wayne (pictured) revealed his anguish seeing a video of his close friend crying for his late mother as he suffocated under the knee of a Minnesota cop
Derek Chauvin was identified as the officer pinning Floyd down in video footage that was widely shared on Tuesday
‘I didn’t know what I was reading. I was looking at the video but I didn’t know they’d killed him.
‘Then when she came in and took the phone from me, I knew it then. She said “He gone” and I was like “Damn. They killed my brother.”’
‘I heard on the video him screaming, calling out for his momma. It’s just really f***ed up,’ he added.
‘When that officer was on top of him he was crying for his momma because he was scared. It’s just awful. They murdered him.
‘That’s going to be in my memory for life. His momma took me in so I know how he loved his momma. His momma was his heart.
‘At one point I can hear him in the video saying “it’s over, it’s over”. That just killed me.’
Wayne said Floyd, 46, was a ‘gentle giant’, well-known in Houston’s rap culture as being the friendliest man around.
‘Any time I was with him and we went round the big rap stars in the city, I was amazed at how he was so cool and so friendly. Everybody knew Big Floyd.
Wayne (center) said Floyd, 46, (left) was a ‘gentle giant’, well-known in Houston’s rap culture as being the friendliest man around
Wayne recounted how he and Floyd (pictured) became close after he took the younger boy under his wing after his mother was imprisoned. ‘His family adopted me and my brother. I knew him all my life,’ Wayne told DailyMail.com. ‘My mother went to jail and his mother took me and my brother in’
‘Anywhere you ever went with Floyd, anybody who met him, it was always like “Hey, how you doing!” I was always amazed. I was like “Why are you so friendly but so big?” Everybody loved him.’
Born in North Carolina, Floyd moved to Houston when he was a baby and was raised in the Cuney Homes projects. He played wide receiver for Jack Yates High School in the city and received a basketball scholarship at Florida State University but dropped out when he ran out of money, Wayne said.
Floyd took another shot at college with a full ride to a university in Kingsville, Texas, and later moved to Minneapolis as part of a program run by a local church to find careers for disadvantaged young black men.
Wayne said Floyd was also close to former NBA star Stephen Jackson. He said the pair called each other ‘twins’, referencing their strikingly similar looks and having both played on the Yates football and basketball teams.
‘Stevie Jackson would come through sometimes and bring Big Floyd suits for a job interview,’ said Wayne. ‘Any time he had a championship game he’d send Big Floyd tickets. He’d call him to see how he’s doing.
‘Now he’s really really hurting… I talked to Stevie for like three hours, he said “Man, the only difference between me and Floyd was I had more chances.” Stevie said to me “It was supposed to be him and not me that made it.”’
Wayne recounted how he and Floyd became close after he took the younger boy under his wing after his mother was imprisoned.
‘His family adopted me and my brother. I knew him all my life,’ Wayne told DailyMail.com. ‘My mother went to jail and his mother took me and my brother in.
‘I was 11 years old. I was waiting in the playground on my own, and he came over and asked me what I was doing. I said I was waiting for my momma. He must have gone and told his mom because she came and took me in. I stayed with them until my momma came home from jail.
‘He was a big brother to me. We would run around the house, playing, stuff like that.’
Wayne said Floyd was the inspiration for his music career, and helped introduce him to major players in the Houston rap scene including DJ Screw, who became an influential figure in the city’s hip hop before dying of a drug overdose in 2000.
Floyd was a one-time rap artist himself, recording several tracks with DJ Screw.
‘This person taught me everything,’ Wayne said.
Floyd’s death has led to protests in Minneapolis. Demonstrators are seen at a police precinct on Wednesday
Police officers and protesters started gathering throughout Wednesday close to the scene of Floyd’s arrest
‘He did music when he was young, and he really got me into music,’ the Houston rapper told DailyMail.com. ‘Right now I’m one of the biggest artists in Houston. But when I was younger I used to beg him to take me to meet DJ Screw.
‘He was a part of the Houston culture movement… When I got older I became a bigger artist, and I got it from being around him. I wanted to be like him.
‘He was going round trying to get me a record deal even while I was in prison. He was always looking out for me.’
Wayne said Floyd’s family are still in shock at the news of his killing.
‘I talked to his brother yesterday morning. They were overwhelmed,’ he said. ‘They didn’t know what else to say. He shook the world.
‘They crushed. Everybody’s devastated. Everybody is saying “not him”. Say if it had been me, it wouldn’t have been that bad because everybody would have said “Wayne, he’s in the streets”. But him, everybody know he left to get his life together. He was doing the right thing, working.
‘They could have killed anybody but him. He never hurt nobody, he really didn’t.’
Wayne said Floyd was so peaceful his friends in the humid, mosquito-ridden Houston joked that he wouldn’t even slap one of the biting bugs on his arm.
‘He was a big, big dude, but he was super friendly. Nobody had never had no fights, no arguments with him.’
On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on prosecutors to arrest and charge the white police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck moments before he died in custody
City officials on Wednesday formally identified the four fired police officers involved in Monday’s incident as Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng
On Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on prosecutors to arrest and charge the white police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck moments before he died in custody.
City officials on Wednesday formally identified the four fired police officers involved in Monday’s incident as Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng.
The cops, who were initially placed on paid administrative leave, were terminated from the Minneapolis Police Department on Tuesday after footage of Floyd’s arrest and subsequent death was widely shared on social media.
Mayor Frey, who said firing the cops was the ‘right call’, did not identify the cop by name but called for the ‘arresting officer’ to be charged over his role in the incident that has sparked national calls for justice.
‘If most people, particularly people of color, had done what a police officer did late Monday, they’d already be behind bars,’ Frey said in a tweet on Wednesday.
‘That’s why today I’m calling on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to charge the arresting officer in this case.’
Chauvin had been earlier identified by Floyd family attorney Ben Crump as the officer who pinned Floyd to the ground in a video of his arrest. Footage showed him digging his knee into Floyd’s neck as he repeatedly said he could not breathe.
Floyd, who was suspected of forgery, died in hospital shortly after his confrontation with police, which is now under investigation by the FBI and has prompted thousands of protesters to take to the streets to demand justice.