“With demonstrators standing outside his concert protesting his presence, R. Kelly summoned his passionate fans to carry him through what has been a difficult week,” Tom Foreman Jr. reports for The Associated Press. “‘Sometimes, some storms ain’t gonna stop,’ Kelly told the audience during his nearly one-hour performance. ‘As long as my fans are calling for me, I’m gonna be on that stage, singing these songs.'”
“Well after his performance, however, the storms that started before he arrived continued to roil,” Foreman Jr. reports. “Women’s groups had urged the Greensboro Coliseum to cancel, days after Kelly was disinvited from a concert in Chicago. Spotify announced it would no longer stream his music in its curated playlists. Although it didn’t announce the move, Apple’s music-streaming service also has stopped promoting Kelly’s music on some of the featured playlists that it shows its 40 million subscribers. Like Spotify, Apple Music still carries an extensive selection of Kelly’s songs in its library.”
“The Greensboro concert was among the R&B singer’s first performances since the #MuteRKelly movement accelerated boycott efforts in recent weeks, with help from the Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment and assault. Protesters stood on the sidewalk outside the Greensboro Coliseum and criticized arena officials for declining to meet with a coalition of women’s groups that signed a letter citing a ‘long term history of sexual misconduct’ by Kelly,” Foreman Jr. reports. “He was acquitted in 2008 of child pornography after a video circulated appearing to show him having sex with a teenage girl… Spotify, citing its new policy against hateful content and conduct, announced Thursday that Kelly’s music is no longer available on the service’s owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations. His music can still be found by those who search for it, but Spotify will not promote it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple may have stopped promoting R. Kelly playlists, but there are currently seven playlists featuring R. Kelly on Apple Music in the R&B and Hip-Hop categories:
• R. Kelly Essentials
• R. Kelly: Next Steps
• R. Kelly: Deep Cuts
• R. Kelly: Influences
• Inspired by R. Kelly
• Behind the Boards: R. Kelly
• Guest List: R. Kelly
Diddling 13 year-old ‘teens’ can destroy a career, no matter how you try to spin it.
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/search?q=R.+Kelly&max-results=8
Sad.
Anytime I see a R. Kelly or Chris Brown track, I skip by. Who wants to listen to these guys sing about their dirty deeds?
Serious question, not sarcasm, are there other artists on iTunes that have a bad history of doing stupid stuff but are still allowed to have their music on iTunes?
Is it because it was dealing with a minor?
I am not aware of it so please tell me. I am just trying to see if this is an isolated incident or if Apple is being hypocritical of just selecting one artist to boycott for being an idiot.
Seriously I’m not trying to start a argument or flame war, I’m being serious.
… there is Seal, who has had accusations against him.
hey buddy. he wasn’t being an idiot. he raped a kid, and peed on her, and has multiple other claims against him regarding minors. but thanks for your “serious” question. nice you see what your priorities are.
sad how the anonymity of the internet prevents us from identifying the truly pathetic among us. oh, and nice to see all the upvotes on that. great job everyone.
Apple made billion dollar deals with Dr. Dre and he has published music advocating violence including gang rape and murder of women. But, that’s ok. Apple’s twin pillars of hypocrisy and absurdity never cease to amaze me.
However it is thanks to dr Dre we have the excellent Doggfather Snoop Dogg, without Dr Dre my man Snoop would not have been found.
snoop dog is a piece of shit that heavily promoted the pimping/sex trafficking of women, which disproportionately involves young girls, with an average age of induction of around 13 yo, and usually involves not just coercion, but repeat rape and physical assault. these are established facts, backed up by the many victims of sex trafficking that I’ve met. but I’m happy for you that someone found ‘your man’ snoop for you.
how are there so douchebags out there? it’s mindboggling.
Play with the Arts get burned, the censored Apple world is a very boring world, there are dozens of current and future Reprobates on the Apple music and movie stores. That is the Arts and always will be…
I can no longer compartmentalize the work of Woody Allen or Roman Polanski from their reprehensible behavior. Nor can I do it with musical artists who behave like neanderthals. I don’t care how talented you are artistically, if you can’t treat others decently, you are undeserving of my time or money.
Thank you MDN!!! ..for reporting on this very important issue, and pointing out where Apple needs to get their shit together. Apple should be leading on issues like this, not just doing a half-ass job of following.
little girls are being raped every day bc of the permissiveness of our culture (e.g. several dumbass posts above).
These are not isolated incidents. It’s estimated that there are 300,000 child sexual exploitation/trafficking victims in the US in a given year. 79,000 alone just in Texas.
the prevalence of child rape is a horrible stain on our society that way way too many choose to ignore. in my work I help the victims try to put their life back together (before one of their suicide attempts becomes successful). no surprise.. it’s not an easy thing for them to do.
MDN. Please purge the child molesters and/or thier sympathizers from commenting on your site.
Is there a way to block IP addresses? If so, please do it.
Any other cowards/child rapist sympathisers want to downvote me without an explanation? Pathetic.