BigEyeUg Team
Yesterday, Spotify revealed that under the terms of a new public hate content and hateful conduct policy, R. Kelly‘s music has been removed from all Spotify playlists. This is in response to the #MuteRKelly hashtag, which went viral last week. Women of Color of Time’s Up asked Spotify and other corporations to cut ties with the singer. Spotify heard the call, but now rapper 50 Cent is defending R. Kelly.
50 wrote on Twitter, “Spotify is wrong for what there doing to artists like R. Kelly and XXXTentacion. There not even convicted of anything.” Reportedly, XXXTentacion has been removed from Spotify playlists as well. XXXTentacion, was accused of abusing his girlfriend who was pregnant with his child at the time. Reportedly, he pushed her down a flight of stairs.
However, it is not as if Kelly is removed from Spotify all together—his music just won’t appear on playlists promoting his music. Yet Kelly can easily be heard on Spotify. But it should no shocker that 50 Cent does not stand with Women of Color of Time’s Up.
Kelly responded to Spotify in a lengthy statement, which read in part, “Mr. Kelly for 30 years has sung songs about his love and passion for women. He is innocent of the false and hurtful accusations in the ongoing smear campaign against him, waged by enemies seeking a payoff. He never has been convicted of a crime, nor does he have any pending criminal charges against him.” You can read the full statement here.
R. Kelly has been accused of sexual assault for 24 years, click here for a detailed timeline.