Sing it or sink it?
Artists struggle with hit songs written by R. Kelly
For Grammy-nominated singer Joe, singing the hit song R. Kelly wrote and produced for him is out of the question.
“I’ve stopped performing the song,” he told The Associated Press, referring to More & More, a Top 20 R&B song released in 2003.
“No music or intellectual property is worth being inconsiderate to the feelings or pain of others,” 45-year-old Joe said.
In the wake of multiple sexual abuse allegations against R. Kelly — which intensified with the release of the Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly — some performers are denouncing songs the R&B hitmaker created for them.
Jennifer Hudson removed two songs R. Kelly wrote for her from some streaming platforms: the Grammy-nominated It’s Your World and Where You At.
Lady Gaga apologized for her 2013 duet with R. Kelly, Do What U Want, and removed the track from streaming services. Celine Dion followed Gaga’s footsteps, removing her Grammy-nominated duet with the embattled singer, I’m Your Angel, from streaming platforms.
R. Kelly, who has denied all allegations of abuse against him, has written and produced his own hits such as I Believe I Can Fly and Bump N’ Grind. He was once a white-hot hitmaker that most artists clamoured to work with. R. Kelly was behind Michael Jackson’s You Are Not Alone, which became the first song ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it did in 1995. He also worked on multiple songs for Whitney Houston’s final album, 2009’s I Look to You.
He produced Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, the 1994 debut album for Aaliyah, who was 15 when she married a 27-year-old R. Kelly the same year the album was released. The marriage was later annulled.
Aaliyah’s album included Back & Forth, a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; other Top 10 hits R. Kelly crafted for others included G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T. for R&B duo Changing Faces; 808 for the girl group Blaque; and Maxwell’s Fortunate, the crowd favourite he performed at the last stop of his tour in New York in December. But will he sing it again? Several artists, through their representatives, didn’t return multiple email requests asking if they would continue to perform songs R. Kelly wrote for them, including Maxwell.
R&B singer Syleena Johnson said after looking closely at the lyrics of her debut song, the R. Kelly-penned I Am Your Woman, she can no longer perform the track. She said she got goosebumps just thinking about how she sang lyrics like “Now I’ve been dealin’ with you since sweet 16/Woman enough to let you raise me/You used to call me daddy’s ghetto queen” for roughly 20 years.
Toni Braxton is currently on tour, but it’s not clear if she’s performing I Don’t Want To, a hit song R. Kelly wrote for her.
R&B star Fantasia, whose 2016 song Sleeping with the One I Love came from R. Kelly, offered this: “I am a mom and I’ve had the chance to work with him and you know, I got to see a lot of things. I did. So, the best thing my mother always told me is, ‘You have to pray for people. You have to pray for them,’ and that’s just what I’m doing now,” she said. “I’m praying for him and I hope that some things change because I am a mother and it breaks my heart.”