Chance The Rapper Apologizes For Working With R. Kelly
Chance The Rapper appeared on the finale of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary series. The program follows the sexual assault allegations against Kelly, including interviews with Kelly’s ex-wife and his accusers. Chance went on the show last night to apologize for his 2015 song with R. Kelly and Jeremih, “Somewhere in Paradise.” In his interview with Jamilah Lemieux, he said that “making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake.”
Rolling Stone originally reported that Chance said, “I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women.” He later tweeted, “the quote was taken out of context,” along with the footage of the interview. The tweet continues, “the truth is any of us who ever ignored the R Kelly stories, or ever believed he was being setup/attacked by the system (as black men often are) were doing so at the detriment of black women and girls. I apologize to all of his survivors for working with him and for taking this long to speak out.”
“We’re programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression. It’s just prevalent in all media, and when you see n***as getting beat up by the police, it’s men,” Chance says in the interview clip. “That’s a scene you see…slavery for a lot of people, they envision men in chains, but black women are exponentially a higher oppressed and violated group of people just in comparison to the whole world. Maybe I didn’t care because I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women.” Watch below.
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
