*Warnings:
~talk of R. Kelly
A/N: I probably need to say this before I start. I didn't watch the documentary.
I'm late on this, but I wanted to write it anyway.
Also, this isn't gonna be about Jesy Nelson's IG video where she drunkenly sang an R. Kelly song. And, this isn't gonna be about Erykah Badu's recent comment about sending love. And, this isn't gonna be about the singers who removed their collaborations. I mean, they'll all be mentioned here, but it's not the main focus on the chapter.
Alright, before I start this, I should give a small description about who R. Kelly is and what he's famous for, so I'll do that first.
He's a singer.
There. Small description. Alright, now I should say what he's infamous for too, so here's a quick description.
He's been with underage girls (age range about 14-16) for years, all of them women of color, and there was that piss tape (a video where he peed on girls). I think there was something about keeping girls hostage but I'm not sure. Either way, bad things. Bad guy.
Anyway, here's just a quick question that I have.
How come when 6ix9ine (I don't stan him, but I'm just saying) did only a few months of crimes, he went to jail pretty quickly, but when R. Kelly's been doing crimes for like 20 years, he's still a free man?
It's just weird to me is all I'm saying. I mean, compared to R. Kelly, 6ix9ine's like un pinché santo (a fucking saint). Not as bad as R. Kelly, but he went to jail and R. Kelly didn't.
And I don't wanna say this, but I'm sure it's unfortunately true.
Like I said before, R. Kelly's victims were all women of color. Most of them black girls and one Latina girl. And nobody's paid any real attention until the documentary came out. The sad thing is, if at least one of the victims was a non-poc/Caucasian girl who was underage, would R. Kelly have gone to jail right away? Would more people have paid attention?
I mean, I didn't know any of this has happened until the documentary was being talked about before it came out (except for the piss tape, because everyone made jokes about that, but I didn't know about it until years after it happened).
Anyway, he's a bad guy. But, here's the other debate about R. Kelly going on right now.
His music. It's still out there. You can still stream it on Spotify (excluding the collaborations that have already been taken down, like the Lady Gaga song and the Celine Dion song). It's everywhere. The question is, should we still listen to it? And if not, should we shame anyone who still does?
This would be called separating the art from the artist.
I mean, this debate has been going on throughout the past few weeks. Like, I watch a few pop culture shows and they're not on the same page with this.
For example, the people on Page Six TV say that in R. Kelly's case, you can't separate the art from the artist.
But the people over at TMZ say that it doesn't make you a bad person if you still listen to R. Kelly songs. They say that you can separate the art from the artist, except for the song "Bump 'N Grind". If u don't know that song, it goes, "my mind is telling me no, but my body's telling me yes." So yeah, the people at TMZ said you can still listen to the songs, except that one.
Anyway, my opinion. I feel like it would depend on the song. For the most part, I never really listened to R. Kelly's music at all. I didn't even know who he was until Lady Gaga put him in her song (that's the only song I still listen to with R. Kelly in it, but I skip through most of his verse, lol). So, to me, Lady Gaga made R. Kelly famous. R. Kelly made himself infamous.
Seriously though, how come nobody said anything when he was married to Aaliyah when she was fifteen????
Alright, about the other celebrities.
That video of Jesy. She was at a club where they played his song and she was possibly drunk. Plus, the way she said R. Kelly's name sounded more like she was mocking him. At least that's how I interpreted it. Plus, she doesn't seem like she'd be listening to R. Kelly's songs all day, so there's that.
That whole thing with Erykah Badu. I know what she said was a little weird because R. Kelly's a bad person and she was talking about sending love to him, but I kinda understand what she was trying to say. She basically said something about sending love to R. Kelly or something. I think her heart's in the right place and it's cool that she wants to spread love. But, maybe not to R. Kelly right now, at least. I don't know, maybe after he serves his time in jail, but that has happened yet so, I don't know. It's pretty hard to send love to someone very bad.
Anyway, I don't know how to end this chapter exactly, so let me do this. So, like I said before, I only song I really liked with R. Kelly in it was the Lady Gaga song, but I skip over his part. Well, originally, I was gonna put a video that didn't have him in the song, but it was taken down😔 So, instead, here's this version with Christina Aguilera in it☺
