LOS ANGELES - American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West took to the streets to protest for George Floyd, a black civilian who died after a police officer knelt on his neck while making an arrest.

West, 42, joined the protests in Chicago on Thursday (June 4) according to USA Today. The protest, organised by youth-led activism group GoodKids MadCity, involved a march to the Chicago Police Department headquarters.

However, the orderly protest quickly became chaotic when news of his arrival spread. The protest organisers were furious with the disorder, and one of them, Taylore Norwood, 20, announced to the crowd via a megaphone that the Chicago march was a youth-led protest and that she did not want a celebrity hijacking it.

West left after a while, allowing the protest to run its course. News of the rapper joining the Black Lives Matter protests came just hours after he announced that he would be paying the legal bills for the family of Breonna Taylor, another victim of police brutality.

Taylor was shot at least eight times in her own apartment in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13 by police officers serving a no-knock search warrant.

West's representative Tammy Brook confirmed to USA Today that West would be giving USD$2 million (SGD $2.78 million) of his own money to support Taylor's civil lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department, as well as to support the families of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

Earlier this week, West's wife Kim Kardashian, offered to foot the medical bills of a protestor who was severely injured by a rubber bullet in Louisville, Kentucky.