The Time’s Up movement has called on R. Kelly’s record label and streaming services such as Spotify to drop the R&B star his alleged treatment of
The Time’s Up movement has called on R. Kelly’s record label and streaming services such as Spotify to drop the R&B star his alleged treatment of women and girl. But the singer’s management has lashed out at a campaign for music businesses to boycott him denouncing it as a public lynching.
The R&B singer supports the Time’s Up movement for gender equality, his management said, suggesting that his relationships with a number of women and girls have been consensual.
“We fully support the rights of women to be empowered and make their own choices. Since America was born, black men and women have been lynched for having sex or being accused of it. We will vigorously resist this attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture,” his management said in a statement.
The Women of Colour division of the Time’s Up movement said it hopes to build on momentum to have a total boycott of R.Kelly’s music after the conviction last week of comedian, Bill Cosby, to build a world in which women of all kinds can pursue their dreams free from sexual assault, abuse and predatory behaviour. Singer and activistJohn Legend quickly backed the #MuteRKelly campaign, although entertainment companies have yet to comment.
Kelly was acquitted in 2008 of charges of child pornography after a video allegedly showed him in sexual acts with an underage girl. Last month, a woman filed a complaint with police in Dallas alleging that Kelly knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease during a relationship that began when she was 19. And last year, BuzzFeed News reported that Kelly was holding six women in virtual slavery with power over their clothing, diet and sexual encounters. He has denied all the allegations.
