This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Lady Gaga has apologized for working with R. Kelly. I stand by anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault: pic.twitter.com/67sz4WpV3i — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) January 10, 2019 I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain, and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously. What I am hearing about the allegations against R Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible. As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life. The song is called "Do What U Want (With My Body)", I think it's clear how explicitly twisted my thinking was at the time. If I could go back and have a talk with my younger self I'd tell her to go through the therapy I have since then, so that I could understand the confused post-traumatic state that I was in or if therapy was not available to me or anyone in my situation to seek help, and speak as openly and honestly as possible about what we've been through. I can't go back, but I can go forward and continue to support women, men, and people of all sexual identities, and of all races, who are victims of sexual assault. I have demonstrated my stance on this issue and others many times throughout my career. I share this not to make excuses for myself, but to explain. Til it happens to you, you don't know how it feels. But I do know how I feel now. I intend to remove this song off of iTunes and other streaming platforms and will not be working with him again. I'm sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner. I love you. Expand - View Original
So if i'm following this correctly... R. Kelly marries an underage girl (eventually gets divorced), then gets busted with the worst imaginable child pornography (but gets out of it because of an improper search warrant), then Lady Gaga chooses to write music with him, then R. Kelly gets accused of holding women hostage in 2017 (pre-#metoo movement), Lady Gaga stays silent, then the accusations become more prominent in 2018/2019 (post-#metoo movement), and now Lady Gaga stands behind these women? No thanks Lady.
I love Gaga and I know she is normally someone that does so much good for many communities, but yeah, a little too late for all of these artists now apologizing. People have known how much of a fucking scum bag R. Kelly was for years and plenty still chose to collaborate with him. I guess an apology is better than silence and I don't think there is any other response that would make a difference since the damage has already been done. I hope any person who works with him, plays his music, or hoists events with him in the future though get dragged through the gravel.
Yeah, the child pornography bust was all the way back in 2002, the domestic abuse of his ex-wife goes back to a similar period and was very public as well. He has a very long, disgusting and public track record of abuse and it shouldn't have taken until now for other artists to distance themselves from him.
She said that she was bonded to him because they've both had untrue things said about them. She clearly knew of the allegations and didn't believe them and was defending him. She didn't even mention how another sexual predator was the director of the video. I sympathize with her trauma I truly do, but when her processing trauma ends up being at the expense of survivors, I have a harder time grappling with that
I didn't realize that R. Kelly was worth collaborating with...I mean, is he really talented? I've never heard anything but bits of his long ass songs on KROQ and they were making fun of it.
Never forget that shortly after Lady Gaga released "Do What U Want" with R. Kelly, the Jim DeRogatis/Jessica Hopper Village Voice article that resurfaced a lot of this terrible stuff was published and Lady Gaga didn't say a damn thing. Instead, she re-released the song with Christina Aguilera because she valued having a hit song after "Applause" bombed more than these victims.
Not sticking up for him OR any collaborators at all, but yes he is talented. Avoided that long song on purpose until they played a bit on the documentary and that song was definitely bad. But yeah no presence of or lack of talent makes it worth supporting R. Kelly through listening or collaboration.