Lady Gaga has finally apologized for working with R.Kelly, and it only took a little over five years, some in-depth investigative reporting, a Lifetime docuseries, and an official criminal investigation in Georgia to get to this point. Early this morning, Gaga released a written statement supporting R. Kelly’s many victims via her Twitter account:
Gaga’s apology comes after the industry-rocking, three-night docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, which aired on Lifetime. As a direct result of the series, the Fulton County District Attorney’s office has launched a criminal probe and is actively seeking information from potential victims and witnesses. While the details of the series are undoubtedly horrific, Kelly’s documented history with abuse goes back to the ‘90s, and includes numerous civil lawsuits and a high-profile child pornography case in 2008—five years before his 2013 collaboration with Gaga, “Do What U Want (With My Body).”
Questions surrounding Kelly’s dubious professional relationships rose again in 2017, when Buzzfeed published a detailed, highly corroborated investigative report about a young woman whose parents claimed she was being held by Kelly in a “sex cult.” Though shocking, the story apparently wasn’t enough to sufficiently derail his career, or for past collaborators—including Gaga—to denounce past work with him.
But things have changed, and Gaga has now gone on to explain that her collaboration with Kelly took place during a “dark time” when she had not fully processed the trauma of her own sexual assault. Now, she is working to get the song removed from all streaming services, and hopes that the public will remember her very vocal support of fellow assault victims over the past few years. “I have demonstrated my stance on this issue and others many times throughout my career,” Gaga writes. “I share this not to make excuses for myself, but to explain.”
As they say, better perplexingly late than never.
[Via Vulture]
106 Comments
if only there were some kind of sign
It shouldn’t take a tv show to bring somebody obviously guilty to justice. The authorities should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring this for so long. VH1 is not supposed to be an integral part of our criminal justice system. Only now, with overwhelming public pressure, are the people who are supposed to protect us prodded into action.(I hope I didn’t Jinx it.)
uhh that was Lifetime, not VH1 **snorts, adjusts glasses with index finger**
And Jinx was HBO, what’s your point? I was OBVIOUSLY referring to the Behind the Music episode where Leif Garret paralyzes that guy.(Yes, that sounds plausible. They’ll buy that.)
VH1 is not supposed to be an integral part of our criminal justice system.
I’d like to add Twitter to that as well.
But as Hannibal Buress showed re Cosby, comedy clubs are still invaluable.
sounds about right someone like you googling child sex acts. Way to not let stereotypes stop you.When did you start watching child porn and rape?
nothing has happened yet
Guilty of what, specifically? The crimes he was already acquitted of? The whole “cult” thing describes perfectly legal behaviors.
Kill yourself.
That’s not an answer to the question. What charges, specifically, should be brought against R. Kelly?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/152989248/R-Kelly-Timeline-Chicago-Sun-Times-CoverageIt’s been known for a long time. Turns out, if you make a good song, and you’re wealthy, you can predate and victimize for as long as you want.
I get your point, though I’d argue that the press is definitely part of our justice system. In that, we guarantee a free press precisely because of the powerful’s ability to predate on the vulnerable and the government’s tendency to cater to the powerful.
I think this is what happens when politics or public opinion infiltrates the criminal justice system. There are considerations other than legal as to why some laws get enforced and some don’t and why some people get prosecuted and some don’t. It’s a far cry from the local cop not ticketing me for speeding because he doesn’t like getting borough residents into trouble and the FBI not investigating Trump for money laundering thirty years ago because he was a rich famous guy with friends. Also, men and women generally hate and mistrust women.
In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: reality television, which investigates crimes, and social media, which prosecutes. These are their hashtags.[IPHONE NOTIFICATION NOISE]
I feel like this is an excellent comment that could be used to start a potentially funny SNL sketch.
I suspect Lady Gaga looked at the residual checks based on the song, and found it a good time to apologize. She is also no longer looking for gold in California, and no longer trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
The authorities didn’t ignore it, though. He was charged and brought to trial. A jury—for reasons I will never ever understand—decided R. Kelly wasn’t guilty despite the video evidence.
Police conducted welfare checks on the current women, but they claimed to be happy and with Kelly of their free will.
What really depresses me is that Spotify took R. Kelly off rotation and the public protested to have R. Kelly added BACK in. People are horrible. The collective “we” of the public hold a lot of blame in R. Kelly’s continued ability to make music and money. The whole marriage to Aaliyah should have been enough to end him.
Whats that sound? Ssshhhh. You hear it? That’s the left eating itself. So hungry to gain the moral high ground from anyone possible. . . lololol
Am I the only one who finds it a bit disingenuous/gross for her to say she only recorded the song with R. Kelly because she has PTSD?
Did someone shoot her in the chin?
literally what difference does it make
“… it only took a a little over five years, some in-depth investigative reporting, a Lifetime docuseries, and an official criminal investigation in Georgia to get to this point.”I would add Gaga thirsting for an Oscar to that list.
ding ding ding!
She’s one of the few pop stars that I’ve come to respect but R. Kelly has been obviously a terrible creep for years. I saw the SNL performance she did with R Kelly and I was amazed at what a terrible decision that was. In future episodes they should replace that performance with Sinead O’Connor ripping up the Pope’s picture instead.
I’m pretty reticent to condemn women, or perhaps even some men, for working with predators because the Janet Jackson debacle with CBS should illustrate that even huge stars who have made billions of dollars for media companies can suffer by being labeled difficult. Maybe Lady Gaga was being provocative, maybe she didn’t understand fully what she was doing or maybe she thought it was a terrible idea to turn him down or to turn down whatever powerful agent/manager told her to work with him.I don’t know, but untangling rape culture isn’t going to happen any time soon and is going to have fits and starts. Until recently most everyone had the choice to turn a blind eye or lose their livelihood.
I hear you. I’m not condemning her, just that decision. She explained herself pretty thoroughly in the post, about rebellion and being provocative and all. I get that. Even recording a song, I can potentially understand, like you can be in separate rooms, or not even in the same city and record things. It just sucks that she was so committed to that level of provocation on that SNL show, they really went early 90’s Madonna-level soft-core grinding on NBC. All I could think is “NO! You’re going to regret this! You picked the wrong guy! This is exactly what he wants!” Oh well. I hope they find enough evidence to get that jerk behind bars.
The oft repeated refrain in the song is “Do what you want with my body”. I don’t think Lady Gaga has so little self awareness, it had to be intentional.
I hear you right back! It’s a good thing that Kelly might actually face some justice.
Yes, it is the worst mistake of Gaga’s career to have worked with that monster. It is impossible she did not know given how public the trial was and the fact that there is an actual video of him urinating on and raping a child. I have never understood why she did it as it doesn’t seem like Gaga. Maybe it really was a dark time and her judgement was truly off due to how she was processing or not processing her own rape as she said.
I mean come on, it’s not like the video for her R. Kelly collaboration was directed by another “alleged” rapist/abuser who she described as a close personal friend and continued to work with as recently as 2016, who helped her out in a lawsuit filed by a former employee by refusing to turn over evidence…
There was an almost-breakdown period for her. I can’t remember if this was during that or not.
She obviously knew R. Kelly had been accused of some crime for which he was judged not guilty, but I actually think it is possible that she didn’t really know the details or extent of evidence or how ridiculous the not guilty verdict was. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and I didn’t have any clue about R. Kelly until the Chicago Sun-Times articles came out. It’s not like everyone in the country knew because this was common knowledge in the neighborhood where R. Kelly was predating.
Gaga’s career takeoff was right around the time of the trial, so it’s totally believable that she wasn’t reading the news or paying attention to anything other than her recording and tour dates.
Over the past year, my performance circles have been rocked by some serious allegations against people. I had no clue. One thing I’ve learned from that is that it’s never true that everyone knows. There are always people who the insider knowledge doesn’t reach. That’s part of why predators are able to always find fresh supplies of victims.
I always assumed the choice of collaborators on that was a purposefully provocative/confrontational thing – the fact that the song’s title implies nonconsensual sex didn’t seem like a coincidence. But maybe she’s just past the point in her career where she wants to be provocative, confrontational or controversial.
Do What U Want (With Her Body)
It bemuses me to hear all these entertainment industry types express that they didn’t know R Kelly was a predator until this documentary. Maybe its because I grew up in the south burbs of Chicago (I now live distressingly close to his old house, where a lot of this shit went down), but we were talking about this shit back in high school, 20+ years ago. Everyone knew was a fucking creep, and we were just a bunch of unconnected high schoolers.
There was literally video of him performing sexual acts on an underage girl. It’s one google search to find out about that.
sounds about right someone like you googling child sex acts. Way to not let stereotypes stop you
Fuck off with your willful misinterpretations of what I said. Hope this name gets banned and you have to get another. It’ll be a fun scavenger hunt.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Nah. Just TheCheadles.
never been banned sweets. You and your cowardly, racist friend here keep imagining that happening. But hey, you’ve never been good with honesty and truth… just like him.Keep adding letters to that line until you “fit in”
He changed his name to ‘Velocirapstar is a Racist’ for a while because I had the audacity to insult Kevin Hart. It’s kind of flattering to get so deep into someone’s head they make slandering you part of their identity. I didn’t really care. Like anyone is going to read that username and reach any conclusion beyond ‘this troll is insane.’
He copy-pasted some dumb shit about me to like 7 of my comments across various pages in like 2 minutes. Made me lol
Oh, it’s THAT guy? He seems to just find one person after another to target in unhinged comments. It’s a mindset I find hard to wrap my head around. “Now, who am I blisteringly mad at this week?”
Stop hitting yourself!
Nothing to misinterpret. You enjoy child sex and Googling it. That’s fucked up.
Hah, what a dumbass troll.
sounds about right someone like you googling child sex acts. Way to not let stereotypes stop you
sounds about right someone like you googling child sex acts. Way to not let stereotypes stop you.When did you start watching child porn and rape?
they all knew. This is their “zero tolerance policy” even though they’ve all worked with scumbags, rapists and pedophiles. This is no different than the Weinstein celebs who dropped a “well gosh golly, I just had no idea!” even though every one knew about it.
I think R. Kelly is a harder one for people so say they didn’t know than Harvey because there was an entire public court case AND a video of him urinating and raping a child.
She knew exactly what she was getting with R Kelly at that time, especially putting him on a track like that. It was a meant as a stunt and to be provocative, and it backfired in real time. Apologizing 5 years later seems less than sincere.
I live in England and I’m not really an RnB fan, but even I knew all the rumours about him being a perv such as him having sex with Aaliyah when she was under age. I think that there’s been a lot of retconning going on by people in the music business. It’s like with Kevin Spacey as I heard about about him being very handsy with any young good looking guys within reach years ago and I don’t work even work in the industry.
I know that Chapele sketch was so long ago. R. Kelly being a creepy sexual deviant is nothing new.
There was also an entire Boondocks episode about his trial for pissing on a 14-year-old girl.
also from the Chicago area, and I have literally been making pee jokes about him for the last decade. I thought it was common knowledge. He doesn’t pay his mortgage either!
I’d also like to see everyone who has listened to his music apologize.
The infamous “piss house” is actually on the north side, near the Wellington Brown Line stop. It’s one of the highlights of my “RKelly’s Chicago” walking tour that no one has ever taken me up on.
better late than never, i guess. but wouldn’t her own sexual assault trauma have made her more sensitive to this stuff back then?
Speaking from experience, the trauma stemming from being sexually assaulted is so deep and convoluted that it can lead to all sorts of questionable decisions. That’s part of the reason why I’m inclined to give her a pass.
Does R Kelly get a pass too, since he was sexually assaulted?
No, because there are twelve planets of difference between “made questionable decisions” and “committed sex crimes against children.”(Not that I’m saying she should get a free pass, but I’m just saying the two are not remotely similar.)
I am not giving a rich white woman a pass. She is rich as fuck and should have known better. She is not some stupid nobody from nowhere. She was motherfucking 27 or 28 when she decided to pull off this bullshit. She can fuck off.
Getting a pass for a musical collaboration with a nightmarish predator isn’t really the same as getting a pass for being a nightmarish predator.
Not just that but she’s also shown she’s committed to sexual assault victims. I personally was upset with Lady Gaga over R Kelly and had been for a while, but this apology (albeit many years late) as well as her activism has assuaged a lot of my negative feelings to her (CRJ is still my gay pop diva of the moment tho).
Lady Gaga doesn’t owe you shit. Your level of self-importance is nauseating.
Yeah, I’ve been disappointed about the whole R. Kelly collaboration for a long time but I do like that she promises to remove the song from iTunes and streaming services. I doubt it’s still making her a ton of money 5 years later but it’s still a platinum selling single and completely expunging it does seem like a good, tangible way of showing that she regrets it and will not support him going forward.
Sexual assault survival is such a complex issue. It can lead to victim blaming (including victims blaming themselves), self-destructive behaviours, deep denial, all sorts.
R Kelly is gonna be pissed!
I always really liked the version she did with Christina Aguilera. That should have been a single. Compare that with the cringeworthy-as-all-hell version with R Kelly. (In the end she’s repeatedly pleading with R Kelly to “do what you want with my body” while the big screen has footage of her as a little girl playing the piano. I mean, what the actual fork, man?:
Are…are people sitting around waiting for celebrities to apologize for shit? Fucking hell. #metoo feels like a parody at this point.
If you work with a serial sex offender, whose shit is known to the public, you should face scrutiny. Bruce, you might like watching Roman Polanski movies and watching R Kelly concerts, but the rest of us are not in to supporting pedophiles.
Yeah, the whole “fuck off by association” thing is worthy of discussion, but I don’t get the desire to see Lady Gaga go down for this. See also “Damon, Matt” and “Silverman, Sarah.”
The reason Gaga gets (and deserves) more attention than them is because sex, sexual identity and sexual agency have been huge parts of her general message since the beginning, and R. Kelly’s actions have been extremely well-documented for an extremely long time. There’s no plausible deniability on her part here: she knew what he did, she knew it went against everything she’s publicly talked about, and she collaborated anyway for a song, video, and live performances.She’s an artist who thrives on appearing genuinely supportive, it’s a huge part of her appeal to her fanbase. This kind of hypocrisy is a lot more damaging to her than it is to Sarah Silverman or Matt Damon, who didn’t build their careers on progressive and supportive messages and who were associated with people who at the very least didn’t have video evidence of their crimes available for years before they even began said associations.
She had to have known R. Kelly’s history, so the choice to put him on THAT song was a provocative act AT THE TIME. Clearly her and her team knew in 2013 how toxic he was, based off the spiking of the Terry Richardson video and the release of an alternate version of the song that replaced Kelly with Christina Aguilera. The fact that she kept quiet about it until after the miniseries aired does not inspire me to give her the benefit of the doubt.
This is nothing. You are all being distracted from bigger issues. Put R. Kelly in prison and let’s be done with it.
To be fair though it is a pretty good tune and I’ll still listen to it if I can.
She thought she could “Art Pop” that shit and, like her new guru Marina Abramovic at her most overt, everybody would congratulate her on her irony and transgressive daring.But, in the end, it was just a collab with a very bad person who was the opposite of everything she was displaying herself as being in public and to her fans and she just thought (hoped) everyone would forget.But now that there’s an Oscar possibility? And she’s trying to get future work in Hollywood? She’s ALL about apologizing.I see you, Miss Germanotta. Note: No kidding but the song WAS a bop. She shouldn’t have made it with him, though.
She re-did it with Christina Aguilera, so you still have that one for the bop.
I don’t think the timing has anything to do with the Oscar or future work in Hollywood. I think it has to do with the documentary making it current news. I don’t see why her apology is being treated differently and with more cynicism than Chance the Rapper’s.
o does she want an oscar??
Weren’t all these “rumours” about him long known by the time she was working with him?
There can be 100 people in a room, and 99 of them aren’t sexual predators. But Gaga will always work with the 1 that is.
Who else has she worked with who’s been accused of being a sexual predator?
Terry Richardson.
Terry Richardson
I hate how you wrote this- Finally apologized… Like you’ve got a ticker associated with MS Outlook that says “Gaga apologizes for working w/ R Kelly” and when the tweet came out, you checked it and said, “Finally!!”
I stand behind these women 1000% (now that I have a shot at an Oscar).FTFY Gaga.
For those who are new to R. Kelly’s shittiness:https://www.wbez.org/shows/jim-derogatis/timeline-the-life-and-career-of-r-kelly/f6aed43d-d7a4-418c-b707-385640a43dfb
This brings up a very interesting question….Lady Gaga recorded a song with r. Kelly?
Is saying that the collaboration came during her “dark time” her way of excusing working with a sex criminal asshole? Is she looking to have it both ways.
You know urine trouble when you work with R Kelly.
“But he gives people golden showers! Mmmhmm, what I would give for a golden shower”-Robert Freeman
Apology not accepted. You thought you could come for queen Glenn Close? COME AGAIN BINCH!!!
Her apology reads as a desperate and insincere load of bollocks. Fuck off she didn’t know, she just didn’t care. Now she’s grabbing at straws to save face while also grovelling to the blood thirsty masses for “forgiveness”.
We get it “Gaga”, you fucked up and now your career is in the headlights, you have to make up some asinine bullshit to quell the outrage machine you helped perpetuate in the first place.
She made a song with a pedo because she didn’t care he was pedo on her way to being famous. Into the bin!
If she did apologize she’s an idiot? Because one thing for certain two things for sure God bless you with a gif to use I can’t nobody take that away from me and for two where is the facts in the surviving r Kelly documentary because we have a few ladies that we didn’t even know that was in our Kelly’s life all of a sudden the surviving r Kelly why weren’t they surviving r.Kelly decades ago? TMZ releases video of all three of the main women r Kelly concerts by themselves having a ball sinking and partying it up? Who’s lying and who’s out for fame? Lady Gaga stay true to your music don’t let nobody run you because one thing for certain two things for sure your voice and your talent got you to where you are today. And r Kelly is just something for the media to sink their teeth into let’s talk about the Catholic Church and raping little boys but our US government won’t do anything about it ….. Let’s see your fans talk about that I bet you they won’t
Why? Why should Gaga be responsible for anything Kelly did? It’s not like she was complicit. What the actual fuck is going on with this shit?
She also collaborated with Tony Bennett. When my father was alive he categorically refused to listen to Tony Bennett songs due to the stories he’d heard of Bennett’s abuse of women. I wasn’t able to get out of him just what incident he was referring to but he hated Bennett with a passion that was uncharacteristic of him.
“Finally,” LOL
Nope, not buying it. Her collaboration with Kelly was calculated to shock, and even revived his sagging career. She has a history of making bad decisions, and then not handling the fallout by denying it:Born This Way LGBTQ Charity Scamhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/mar/14/lady-gaga-denies-born-this-way-foundation-fundsHer doubling down on her mistreatment of her personal assistant/slavehttps://nypost.com/2013/02/01/lady-gaga-rants-under-oath-in-pay-battle-with-former-personal-assistant/Her disclaimer about working with R. Kelly is classic Lady GaGa denial.
This whole story is depressing. First and foremost for the victims and their loved ones, but, zooming out, for what kinds of things we as a society sanction and what kind of society we are. Making others lots of money should not get you elected president nor make people look the other way on your child sex crimes. I feel that in America we excuse terrible behavior more than people of other countries if the person doing it is financially successful. If that’s the case, we need a serious reformation of society.
The way people on the internet react to apologies from celebrities is so bizarre. They’re always either “not good enough”, or “not soon enough”. This is someone who has nothing to do with his actions whatsoever. An apology like this is a courtesy, not an obligation.
How many seats are on this bandwagon?
I like how she references her song “Til it Happens to You” in her apology, real classy. I’ll stick with Tori Amos, ‘Me & a Gun’ & RAINN, Gaga.
This continued trend towards 2nd- and 3rd-hand shaming is a downward spiral. Outrage culture strikes again.
Hey, Gaga is not the Monster here.
just in time for award season!