Taking cue from Lady Gaga, a number of artists are taking down collaborations with R. Kelly from streaming services.
Kelly’s collaborations with Celine Dion– ‘I’m Your Angel’, 1998 and Chance the Rapper– ‘Somewhere in Paradise’, 2015 appear to be in the process of being removed.
‘I’m Your Angel’ had been removed from YouTube but not other streaming services and ‘Somewhere in Paradise’ was taken down from streaming services but not YouTube.
Last week, about 12 hours passed between Gaga’s announcement that she wanted to remove her 2013 collaboration with Kelly titled ‘Do What U Want’ from streaming services and the iTunes store, and the actual removal.
A performance of the song from the American Music Awards that year remains on YouTube; that clip is owned by ABC, which broadcasted the show, rather than Gaga’s label, Interscope Records.
Kelly has been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct by multiple women over the past two decades. However, the accusations against the 52-year-old singer resurfaced in the wake of a recent documentary series ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ that chronicles allegations of abuse, predatory behaviour, and paedophilia against him.
In ‘Surviving R. Kelly’, Chance the Rapper told Cassius reporter Jamilah Lemiux that “Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake. At the time, it wasn’t even present in my mind that people could feel any type of way about his presence on a track of mine. I think for a long time I was only able to understand R. Kelly’s situation and presence in the world when it comes down to his trial and his accusations and his accusers as a victim. I don’t know if that’s because I’m from Chicago [as is Kelly] or because he made great music or because he is a black man.”
