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Mild trigger warning for this story
I’d heard the rumors about R. Kelly for so long, but didn’t know the suvivor’s stories until seeing the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries. My husband and son watched all the episodes with me while my daughter choose not to watch, but did talk about it with us. If I shout from the rooftops on this, non-stop, for the rest of my life, I still will not have done enough for these women. Through six hours over three nights, we heard about unthinkable acts done to vulnerable girls and women, all of whom trusted this man. Instead of delivering on promises to fulfill dreams, he systematically trained each one into a relationship involving every form of abuse. (Roxana Hadadi at Pajiba did a great review, if you want those details.) In addition to exposing R. Kelly’s heinous crimes, the series exposed his cadre of enablers who readily turned a blind eye as they perpetuated his depravity. It is tragic, it is unthinkable and it is a devastating statement about the value we put on black women and girls lives. And even though society failed these survivors, they bravely sat for what must have been excruciating hours, reliving their pain, telling their truths.
R. Kelly has always claimed he’s completely innocent. He’d do anything to convince us of that. During his trial for the infamous tape for which he was arrested, R. Kelly allowed his lawyers to throw his younger brother, a victim of sexual assault himself, under the bus by claiming it was him on the tape. So it’s no surprise that this monster thinks he can get away with it again, going as far as threatening to sue everyone involved with Surviving R. Kelly. He can claim whatever he wants, I don’t care to hear what he has to say about anything ever again. When he’s put in the ground, I hope it’s in an unmarked grave.
After the first two episodes aired, R. Kelly‘s music sales jumped 16%. That mystifying fact has people like Jada Pinkett Smith asking why:
How is it that R Kelly's music sales have spiked (substantially) since the release of the docuseries Surviving R Kelly? I need some help in understanding. What am I missing??? pic.twitter.com/pysqVxLzyi
— Jada Pinkett Smith (@jadapsmith) January 6, 2019
I applaud Jada for this. She put all her anger out there without once raising her voice. And when she finished with, “and I really don’t want to believe that it is because black girls don’t matter enough,” you feel that at your core. In the docuseries, they repeatedly point out that R. Kelly’s music lays out his crimes and that his songs are like trophies, similar to those serial killers take from their victims. Beyond those who still call the survivors liars, there are those that claim the spike is due to people curious to listen for clues. Lyrics can be read online for free. His music is on YouTube for free. The enabling must stop. These women matter. This is a good thread for those of you wondering what more you could or should be doing.
I stand with his survivors and survivors everywhere. And I pray for Azriel Clary, Joycelyn Savage and their families.
#MuteRKelly
Photo credit: Lifetime and Getty Images. Frontpage image is from Jerhonda Pace’s Instagram
It’s in the same ballpark as the Chris Brown thing. There will ALWAYS be women jumping to defend these terrible men because of the way they’ve been conditioned to hate other women. They think that the women deserved it, or that the man is broken but someone they can fix. And it’s incredibly f–ked. And honestly? At this point I think we should be shaming the shit out of the women that support these creeps. I don’t know if it’ll fix anything, but if they’re going to tear down survivors to hold up abusers, they deserve to feel very uncomfortable because of it.
My aunt and I talked about this yesterday? “How did he get away with this?” she said. I told her “Because he’s rich and famous and I’m sure he paid a lot of people off and his victims were black so no one cared.” The black community continued to support him despite all this. It was more important to protect a pedophile than these black girls.
It makes me sick too to see all these other black women support and make excuses for him just like Chris Brown. “She knew what she was doing” “She probably did something to make him mad” I’ve heard all these sh@tty excuses from other black women and it makes me sick. Is the justifice system stacked against black men? Absolutely. Have there been cases where black men spent decades behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit? Yes. But R Kelly and the other POS Bill Cosby need to be under the jail.
I had someone on my facebook last week basically saying “well… I don’t know what happened and I’m not sure we’ll ever hear the whole story. But I really loved his songs… and it sucks that he’s probably awful, but I still like those songs” and I mean… I sort of get that. If you really love some music or a movie and later on hear how absolutely rotten the person behind it was… it’s sucky. It sucks losing something you love. BUT it’s not anywhere in the same universe as how awful it is to be a victim of one of these people. And if having to lose something I really enjoyed means I’m supporting the people who were hurt, I’m okay with that. And I don’t think that girl was, and that is frustrating. It’s so hard to get it into people’s heads that these rumors are rarely untrue. And when the rumors have been around for decades and they all match up pretty close, well at some point you’d think people would start to get it. But for some reason, there’s always going to be people ready and raring to turn a blind eye on abusive behavior when it doesn’t affect them – or if it doesn’t affect someone LIKE them. And it’s so sad.
The ones that upset me the most are the “Well, where were the parents? MY parents wouldn’t let ME go down the block without knowing where I was!!”
Well, some of us come from broken homes. Some of us have parents who can’t even take care of themselves, much less their children.
Does that mean it’s their fault for not taking care of their kids? Kind of the same way it’s a woman’s fault for getting assaulted because she wore a short skirt?
Certainly, someone should have been taking better care of those young girls. It would have been really nice it if had been their families, first, and then their larger culture, second, and then the profession within which they circulated, third. That’s the ideal world.
With or without decent families, it’s all on R. Kelly, first and foremost, and then it’s on those who were there to see and who opted to avert their eyes–at best–or actively enable–at worst.
Lucky are those who had parents who cared where they were after school, but none of that absolves or mitigates the evil perpetuated by R. Kelly and those who enabled him.
There has been a pervasive idea that he has been targeted as a black man. While that does happen, it was not the case here. More black men like John Legend need to be vocal about their cancellation of R. Kelly. All the white people in the world can say something, but these women need the support of the black community.
@Joy. It is funny you should say all the white people in the world can say something but black people have to step up because if you knew anything many black women reporters have been trying to expose R. Kelly for years. There articles have been buried or shoved into publications that don’t get much readership. Black women have had to fight against the black people who are putting black men above black women in everything. A white man has also been working on this story for decades and his reporting was buried by mainstream media because no one (not dominant society or the black community, especially black men cares when black women are victims).
Black women also came out and supported a lot of their white counterparts during #Metoo. Yet, white Hollywood and music industry has been pretty silent on R. Kelly even after this doc has aired. The same lady who created Metoo has been working tirelessly.
Also the first comment on this article is very telling. I remember reading all about how Georgina Chapman shouldn’t have to take any responsibility for Harvey and had all the excuses/support in the world yet now with black women it is all the sudden coming to a point where those supporting him is at a threshold. Very telling about how minorities are always held to an even higher standard while a woman like Chapman is not.
i asked my trainer to stop putting chris brown on playlists for our classes at orange theory and he did! i love him and the classes but it made my skin crawl when CB songs would come on and we would all be bopping and running and upbeat. i don’t think half the class even knew they were chris brown or would care. even though my trainer is a super nice guy but i was scared to approach him but he was like “i should have done this in the first place” and CB was never heard from again. it was an itsy, bitsy, teeny, tiny victory.
I’m glad that went the way that it did, Lizzie. I’d have done the same, but I’d have agonized over it. Honestly, I probably couldn’t recognize one of his songs since his second album haha. But if I did, I’d be really uncomfortable hearing it even in a gym setting. I just despise the guy. And it’s a shame that he’s an absolute garbage human because it’s not like he was completely untalented. But I refuse to willingly support him.
@Frida K, I agree, although sometimes parents do everything they can or aren’t even aware something’s wrong unfortunately because of how predators like him operate.
This reminds me a little of the Jimmy Savile case here in the UK, as I was watching the documentary (have only seen two episodes so far) I realised how he systematically groomed all these young girls and how the people around him enabled it for years. The Aaliyah stuff alone just raises so many red flags, I can’t believe that wasn’t a bigger deal than it was when it happened. I only hope he sees justice whereas Savile never did and I’m so glad this documentary has been made and that these women have been given a platform.
I read something yesterday where his enablers have created various social media pages to discredit the survivors, including posting tapes and photos. What a vile group of people, and seriously, how the heck does he keep getting away with it?! Then again, Jeffrey Epstein…
The fact that his sales are actually up after all of this is shocking. He needs to be thrown under the jail. A lot of people have been talking about how nice it would be if Aaliyah were still alive so that her voice could be heard about this. Dame Dash was interviewed a few days ago and said some interesting things about the situation, mentioning that Aaliyah had a hard time talking about R. Kelly and would say, “he was a bad man.” These women are so brave for sharing their stories with everything they were up against. Also, props to John Legend, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Chance the Rapper for speaking up. #MuteRKelly
By the way, I think this is a good place to mention that Cyntoia Brown was finally granted clemency. I’m so glad she will not be forced to serve a 51-year sentence for basically just being an abused kid who ended up killing one of her abusers.
the Cyntoia Brown clemency was SO GREAT to hear!
re: Kelly suing?…go ahead, dumbass. EVERYTHING will come out in court, then. EVERYTHING the women have to say, EVERY person who ever worked for you, EVERY producer, agent, etc will be called to testify. videos, recordings, etc…it all becomes fair game. EVERY BIT OF EVIDENCE the producers of “Surviving” have.
like 45, I suspect this “shut it down or I’ll SUE!” is a bunch of tough talk by a total scaredy-cat. he doesn’t want this to go to court. or, he shouldn’t, but he’s gotten away with it for so long his ego probably thinks he can.
TMZ has been posting support-like posts, e.g. pictures of the women who are missing at his concerts, shopping, etc. then asking “free will or stockholm syndrome?” when in fact, they’re trying to discredit the documentary. They also posted a video of Andrea Kelly singing one of R Kelly’s songs. Stuff like that. There’s a special place in hell for Harvey.
Like someone said below TMZ is getting paid by R Kellys PR team to smear and discredit his victims, that is what TMZ does.
This is what gets me when people say things like “separating art from the artist” it makes me want ro scream Your money is still enabling these men to get away with their crime and making sure that they’re protected. That’s why they’re able to get away with it.
Not Surprise by TMZ they are criminals for hire. Johnny Depp use them to smear Amber Heard, Trump used them to smear Hillary, Harvey Winston used them to smear its victims, Brad Pitt, the Kardashians and many more do the same thing.
Always be wary of other people TMZ is attacking while praising the other and making them into a victim it’s the opposite.
@Raven that doesn’t surprise me. Harvey Levin hates women. He is always on the abusers side.
The advertisers need to stop sponsoring his vile website.
@BlueSky
TMZ is/was ownd by Warner Bros studios. Which is why they’re so protected. Their was a story about them blackmailing Justin Bieber a couple of years ago. He was paying them a monthly payment to withhold certain photos. It’s been known that politicians and PR people for celebrities and musicians pay TMZ to promote an image of them and act like attack dogs.
The day that TMZ goes down is the day so many in Hollywood and Capitol Hill get exposed for their involvement.
Most famous/rich people are into raping kids.This is why Rkelly has been protected for years,its a huge club.You should get an interest at the sentence given to pedophiles; it is ridiculous.
I was waiting for Celebitchy to comment on R Kelly and I was not disappointed.
The world has known for decades that R Kelly is a pedophile and systematic abuser of very young girls. I’ll never understand why there wasn’t more outrage when a 27 yesr old man forged documents and married 15 year old Aaliyah. I feel like his enablers and the public in general are guilty of being complicit. During his child sex tape trail, there was indisputable evidence and yet he walked on to meet and abuse a new 14 yo he met outside the courtroom, and eventually created his twisted “cult”.
I’m happy he’s finally being exposed in a way he can never recover from. He’s a horrible human being and a classic predator who belongs in jail.
Praying that Azriel and Joycelyn get the help they need.
Why hasn’t the police done a sting and put this creep away?
I heard they’ve tried, but he has/had buddies in he Chicago Police Department who tipped him off. Not sure how long ago that was though.
It wouldn’t surprise me if something like that comes out of this.
That this was made and these women were heard is heartening. The muted reaction (and those Spotify numbers) is horrifying. The world’s complete indifference to the suffering of Balck women and girls is infinite.
And I knew this would happen. I KNEW it.
Question: Is his music still available on streaming sites, spotify, ITunes. Prime etc? Is that where purchases/streams have gone up? If yes, I genuinely feel its their responsibility to remove his music, at least temporarily, so he doesn’t continue to profit off his actions.
yes – someone should step up and remove him from their platforms. once one does – the others will have to.
Those streaming sites are not going to take down his music until it starts to hurt their pocket because all they care about is money.
It is. And yes the numbers spiked because people are garbage and the industry only cares about money.
Oh and that reminds me, while creative collaborators like Jay Z, Lady Gaga, and Celine Dion (I’m serious) need to be dragged; just a reminder that oh so woke and brave 🙄 Kendrick Lamar threatened to remove his music from Spotify when they said they would stop actively marketing R Kelly. That was LAST YEAR. So remember, Kendrick Lamar is trash.
@mia4s i agree they should be dragged but think celine dion is also a victim of this type of grooming. she was 12 when her 30 years older husband started closely managing her and they got together when she was 19. i don’t believe for a second that was a love story.
This is why I am done with the Music Industry. These people are ridiculous and just pathetic. I love Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, however, they need to dragged because none of them spoke out. Jay Z is just like the music industry… greedy AF. Therefore, people that enable R. Kelly should find a hole to stay with R. Kelly along with people who love Kanye West.
The Silence of people like by Jay-Z, Lady Gaga Celine Dion and more speaks volumes.
I agree the person above who said that Celine Dion was groomed but her deceased husband.
Infuriating with what R.Kelly has gotten away with. I agree. Where were the others along with John Legend standing up for these women? So many others in the music industry could of stood up to support these women and forced that prats music to at least to see a hit, not let him see financial gains. More powerful artists could of stepped forward, they could of helped make an impact. Instead those famous weak arse-lickers sit back silent helping enable this piece of rubbish.
My support to all his victims.
#muterkelly
@mia. Kendrick did not threatened to pull his catalog because of R. Kelly, he threatened to pull it because the algorithm they planned to use would kill any residuals for lower tier artist. It was Spotify trying to get one over and Kendrick said, ‘ I see you’.
I was going to write the same thing.
Dame Dash just spoke out about how the tour with Jay Z and R Kelly begat the strain between the two of them and lead to the demise of Rockafella records.
Since Dame had dated Aaliyah and knew how hard it was for her to even speak on what Kelly did to her, he wanted nothing to do with the collabo and Best of Both Worlds tour. And Jay was supposed to be Aaliyah’s friend too, even though she had already died by then, but Jay went along with it anyway. Birds of a feather. Seeing as there were rumors that Jay took Foxy Brown’s v-card at 15 and he was 26 or so and how he chased after Beyonce when she was 17 and he 28, I can see why he probably didn’t think R Kelly was doing anything he wasn’t at the time. SMH
@jeangrey. I wouldnt take anything Damon dash says to heart. Wasn’t he barred from seeing his ex wife and daughters for like three years. The wife got sole custody and a three year restraining against Damon. His ex wife was also the woman that was rumoured to be sleeping with jay z. What a messy crowd.
Hope r Kelly goes down soon and I hope this makes everybody who covered for him feel like shit for the rest of their lives
Considering iTunes and Amazon sell Charles Manson’s music (I just recently learned this), I’m not all that optimistic about asking them to remove R. Kelly’s.
His music is still available but not advertised or promoted on spotify, pandora, and apple music. So a young kid who never heard of him won’t stumble upon his music and become a new fan. However, people who know of him can still search for him and find his music. I don’t think it’s enough, but that’s what’s happening. Also, RCA hasn’t dropped him yet either.
I am not sure about this saying but I think this will impact a lot of you enablers and that it “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”. R. Kelly needs to be put in a jail cell for life. This man is sick, disgusting and vile. Also, I feel that I had a hand at this and it is my fault because I am part of the black community that is complicit. WE DID NOT SAVE OUR YOUNG GIRLS and for that I AM SORRY. With that being said, this man went from a serial rapist to paedophile to an abuser, sooner than that he will become something much worse and I hope that doesn’t come to that if R. Kelly is incarcerated and jailed for life. That will be MURDER. Once again I hope for everyone’s sake that doesn’t come to that.
#Metoo, #MuteR.Kelly, #puthissickassinbars.
A music critic/ journalist in Chicago has been talking about this for years, seemingly to deaf ears. Thank goodness he’s finally getting exposed on a larger scale but my biggest question is when/how will Kelly be locked up for good?
“I hope When he’s put in the ground it’s in an unmarked grave” man I felt That line in my bones.
Me too! Very well written, Hecate!
Watching the documentary…that is MY hood…all those streets that were shown…I walked them…the high schools too…I’m (10) years older than the women that were humiliated…desecrated and destroyed…by R. Kelly and the power infrastructure….
Back in the day…I heard about Kelly’s talent all through the community…when he was with Public Announcement…before he hit it big…I heard about the gossip regarding his inability to read…and there where other ones that had a LOT of traction…about his personal hygiene….I’m sorry…that one was EPIC…I heard about ALL of that in the early 90s…My younger sister knew him…his people…that crowd
Then around 1995…I started hearing about Kelly…hanging out at Kenwood and Hyde Park…at first I thought it was because he had family there…you go pick your family up from their high school…floss in your big truck…ALWAYS a tricked out truck…your family’s friends all see you come from money…then they get pub and a bigger rep….made sense…I had seen it done…I had done it too….seriously didn’t think anything of it…
Then the tape came out…did I see the tape? Yes…because I did not…could NOT believe the rumors….not with ALL of the background info that I knew about the situation also…regarding the child’s family…and everything….no…that could NOT be true…
All I will say about that…because…I truly don’t want to get THAT upset this early in the morning on my job…is this…
There are moments in your life…when you WHOLLY realize the depths of the evil that men can and will do…
I pray…that you all will not have many moments like that…in your lives….
The longer I work in medicine and women’s health, the more I believe that perpetrators against WOC are the worst of what humanity has to offer. Their crimes are an abuse of both bodies and person on every level, and they pick them because they know WOC are the least valued by American society. It is the absolute definition of evil.
I just wanted to drop in that I found the show available on Vudu today. Since I don’t have cable and wasn’t willing to sign up for a free trial on a streaming service to watch it, this is a perfect option. I wanted to drop it here in case others are looking for ways to get to see it.
Thank you always for the great content. Celebitchy is my only news source these days and you do a great job of covering everything I’m interested in learning about. <3
R. Kelly is disgusting. There are rumors his team created a Facebook page with the aim of discrediting and shaming these women, releasing some of the sex tapes. Apparently the goal was to prove the sex tapes were consensual. Although, how does this matter when the individual women in the tapes were underage? Ugh. Fortunately the page has been taken down according to The Daily Fail. Kelly is completely out of touch with reality and is a predator. He sees nothing wrong with his behavior.
Who ever thought that Facebook page was a good Idea were idiots. Let provide evidence of him sleeping with underage girl. Although I think their goal was supposed to shame those women and embarrass them, I’m glad the page was taken down nevertheless.
I read some of those texts that were posted and honestly it just proves that the stuff the women said about him was true. The asking permission for stuff and calling him daddy constantly. Creepy
#blackgirlslivesmatter #muterkelly
Although i was aware, seeing it all put together in one narrative with so many witnesses was powerful. Please let this be the tipping point.
Hopefully they can all get together and file a lawsuit against him like the women did to Bill Cosby.
People had some comments from R Kelly’s brother (who is in jail for burglary or something) and his brother’s comments made my skin crawl. It sounds like the whole family has dominance and control issues and are possessive of women. I’m not sure what happened to R Kelly and his brothers during their childhood to make them this way and I have no idea if it was because of the way they were raised. Was their father like this too? The whole family sounds so messed up.
Robert and his younger brother Carey were molested by their older sister Theresa. Robert between the ages of 7-13 and Carey at 6.Not sure if she also molested the jailbird brother, but I would not be surprised. His older bro is disgusting. He made excused that Kelly liking young girls was just a “preference” and said he didn’t understand why his younger bro didn’t take Robert’s payoff to take the fall and saying he was the one in the videotape. smdh
Oh my god, that’s horrible! I read briefly on his childhood on Wikipedia and it mentioned he wrote a book where he talked about being molested by an older female but it didn’t specify it was his sister! I’m assuming the sister herself was maybe molested as well, it just seems there is a pattern of sexual abuse in that family. While this does not excuse R. Kelly’s horrific abuse of women over many decades, I am starting to understand how he became a predator and why he may also be a pedophile if he was abused by his teenage sister. It does not seem any of the siblings turned out well due to this childhood abuse. How terribly sad but also so disturbing. Thanks for the info.
This is what makes it so horrible. Because he was molested he knew exactly what he was doing and how he’d be harming people and he just said f-k it, I’m gonna do it anyway. THAT is when you know he’s just an evil mofo and he deserves everything that’s coming to him.
I really wish I could see the documentary here in the UK.
You might check Amazon prime. I am a cord cutter and bought it there, although not sure it’s available on Prime UK.
Thanks I will take a look 🙂
As a black woman, I am incensed by this whole R. Kelly situation and cancelled him a long time ago. I remember reading a Rolling Stone article a few years ago which detailed at length his sick and disgusting proclivities. When he married Aaliyah, I was waiting for his fans to be outraged and view newscasts reporting how her extended family nearly beat him to death upon learning that he violated her. Alas, this did not happen. My community has an extensive history of defending alleged black male assailants at the expense of black girls and young black women. Since the documentary aired, my Facebook timeline has been filled with people questioning the motive behind the young girls/women agreeing to air their experiences and questioning their character. There have also been a number of folks (men and women!!) countering with, “What about Elvis grooming Priscilla Marie Presley?”, “What about Hugh Hefner having sex with those Playboy Bunnies” , “What about Jay-Z falling in love with Beyonce when she was teen?” so on and so forth as if those other incidents cancel out what happened to R. Kelly’s victims. It gives me the impression that they want to sweep the victims’ experiences under the rug and forget about them like Hollywood and the music industry have done for decades. This topic is triggering for me because it forces me to remember the pain and despair I felt when my mother’s boyfriend often got handsy with me whenever she wasn’t around. He always tried to “innocently” kiss me near my mouth or brush up against me when I would wash dishes. I suffered in silence until he propositioned me for sex. Mind you, I was a 14-year-old child and wasn’t even remotely interested in engaging in anything like that! At that moment, I knew that I had to tell my mother. Thank goodness she believed me, broke up with him and took the necessary steps to remove him from our lives (i.e., filing a restraining order). When this information was shared with my aunts, they questioned my motives for speaking out and accused me of lying to get my mother and step-dad back together. Their lack of support hurts me to this day and I have residual resentment towards them nearly 30 years later. I have chosen to reveal my own experiences on my personal Facebook page and have received support from my friends for sharing my story. One of my friends said the following about R. Kelly, “R. Kelly has a whole fan base of people who have swept molestation under the rug in their own families. They will continue to support his predatory ass the same way they’ve had the perverts in their families at Thanksgiving sitting across the table from the kids they harmed.” That, in itself, saddens me.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. I wish it wasn’t this way.
I know I’m super late to the comments, but I wanted to thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I’m so sorry for your personal experience with sexual predation, but I’m very glad your mom was your ally.
This isn’t the first time people (black women) have spoken out about this person’s ongoing, perpetuated abuse of black women and girls, but this time around it seems to be getting more traction. I’m trying to do my part to shout this from the rooftops so it can’t get lost in the constant white noise of terribleness. I don’t have Lifetime, so I didn’t watch it the nights of, but I heard the miniseries is available for purchase on iTunes, so I plan to track it down and watch it.
That song Gaga did with him was so repulsive on multiple levels and I have never felt the same way about her since. I hope she loses all the Oscars. We’ve all known for so long that he is a pedophile, rapist, and all around scum bag, so what does Gaga do? Make a rape anthem with a super rapey video with a known rapist.
And JC, how is he still a free man? I can’t bring myself to watch this docuseries because I know I’ll just end up sobbing and being depressed afterwards. How many years have we known this creep is what he is and now, in 2019, it’s finally being discussed? He is a glaring example of how ugly humans can be and his supporters/enablers should have some answering to do as well for these poor women.
The whole thing with lady Gaga is so gross. Remember the proformance Saturday night live? And than they didn’t release the video that was made by terry Richardson. Gaga was so vocal about being a victim and sticking together, overcoming it, why would she work with him? And now she won’t even talk about it. I can’t have any respect for her after that.
@bryn that performance was so disgusting. People like Gaga irritate my soul. She wants everyone to care when a painful situation is about her, but had nothing to say about how she was out there dry humping a known sexual abuser on live TV. If you haven’t sorted out your issues from your own abuse, don’t position yourself as some kind of powerful ally/savior figure in the media. I think Rihanna is a good example of how to handle something like that. Riri had her issues and she got back together with Chris Brown, but she was also quite vocal about not wanting to be a role model. Celebrities are people too, and statistically most women do go back to their abusers at some point. It made me sad that Riri did that, but I wasn’t mad at her because she was clear as day about the fact that she hadn’t gotten her head right about what happened. With Gaga, she was out here speaking loudly about survivors rights and fighting for Kesha like she had it all figured out. If we take Gaga at face value, she knew what she was doing. So, she gets no passes from me. If Gaga was humble enough to say she was going through a mentally difficult time and made a mistake working with him, I might be able to accept that. But the fact that she also doubled down by adding creepy uncle Terry to the mix too… ugh, yeah I just can’t give out any kind of pass for Gaga. And I too hope R Kelly one day rots in an unmarked grave, Hecate!
Dave Chappelle was on this years ago with his mocking of Kelly on The Chappelle Show. Brilliant satirization of Kelly, his music, and R &B music in general.
Bravo to Lifetime for stepping wholly and completely outside of their brand and fan-base. What they’ve done is courageous.
Erykah Badu’s response to fans who asked her to speak up: “A wise woman once said … nothing”
Unbelievable
I can’t believe that was her response. I wonder if she would be pulling that “A wise woman” crap if it was one of her daughters.
I hope she’s not asked back to host “Black Girls Rock” this year because clearly she doesn’t give two craps about black girls
Hecate, I’m glad it was you to cover this story. Thank you for doing such a good job with such an insanely awful story.
Not sure links are allowed but just in: he’s under investigations bc of the docuseries https://www.complex.com/music/2019/01/r-kelly-under-investigation-criminal-charges-georgia?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=complexmag&utm_source=twitter.com
I’m not condemning people who were not directly involved with Kelly’s pedophilia choosing to remain quiet. I’m keeping the onus towards Kelly’s camp specially. I was in elementary school when Kelly went solo and the Aaliyah stuff came out. Thought it was just rumors. In middle school when his music blew up. It was nice to have a black male RB singer who had cred like he did. By high school I was a full blown fan. Thought Sparkle couldn’t cut it, etc. When his tape dropped in College I believed him when he said it was his brother. Now as an adult I just feel awful for those women. And upset he has more in his cadre right now. So angry with the adults who failed those women and amazed with how he kept so much of this as an open secret. It’s just sick