Popular American singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly also known as R. Kelly has been dropped by his record label, Sony Music.
According to reports, the artiste who is currently facing a series of allegations of abduction, sexual abuse and exploitation was dropped by the record label on Friday, January 18.
The `I believe I can fly’ crooner was also removed from the RCA website whose parent company is Sony Music.
Sony’s move comes after years of public calls, and even a petition from members of the #MuteRKelly Movement, for the company to part ways with him.
Those calls intensified in the wake of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” in which multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Women, organisations and victims including parents and relations of victims had protested at the Sony Music offices in Los Angeles and its New York Headquarters.
Reports had it that Lady Gaga and Celine Dion who had worked with him (Gaga’s `What do you want?’ and Dion’s `I am your Angel’) had apologised and promised to remove the songs from streaming platforms.
Similarly, Chance the Rapper also pulled out his 2015 collaboration with R. Kelly `Somewhere in Paradise’ from all streaming services.
Surviving R.Kelly was a six hour-long chapter documentary that dived into the tangled history of allegations against the 52-year-old superstar and separated father of three.
The first two episodes dug into the childhood of the Chicago born rapper turned producer, singer and song writer, in which he was recognised as a musical prodigy.
His unstoppable rise to stardom and his relationship with singer, Aaliyah (now late), whom he met when she was 12 years-old were also in the first two episodes of the documentary.
The third and fourth episodes detailed the circumstances of the so-called “pee tape,” which allegedly showed Kelly having sex with and urinating on a 14 year-old girl, and the alleged child pornography case that ended in a surprise acquittal.
The final two episodes highlighted the reports from the last several years that Kelly allegedly isolated and groomed women and girls into a sex cult for his own pleasure.
All of these incidents had been exhaustively reported and dissected in public. Women had come forward with eyewitness accounts of gaslighting, intimidation, molestation and violence.
R.Kelly has released his first song in 2019, ‘Born to My Music’.
(NAN)
