Chance The Rapper has opened up about his collaboration with controversial rapper R. Kelly, stating his decision to work with him was “a mistake”.
On Thursday, the six-part docuseries Surviving R. Kelly finally went to air. Focusing on the number of allegations made against the rapper in regards to abuse, pedeophilia, and predatory behaviour, the documentary features a vast number of interviews with people who have encountered R. Kelly throughout their lives.
However, the documentary was not without controversy, with R. Kelly himself outlining his plans to file a lawsuit against the Lifetime network if the documentary went to air, stating it was “packed with lies.”
One artist who was interviewed in the documentary was Chicago artist Chance The Rapper, who used his opportunity to distance himself from the pair’s 2015 collaboration.
As Rolling Stone first reported, Chance The Rapper expressed his disappointment at working with Kelly on 2015’s ‘Somewhere In Paradise’, noting it was a mistake, and regretting the fact he ignored the accusations against the controversial artist.
“Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake,” Chance explained in an interview with Cassius‘ Jamilah Lemieux. “At the time, it wasn’t even present in my mind that people could feel any type of way about his presence on a track of mine.”
“I think for a long time I was only able to understand R. Kelly’s situation and presence in the world when it comes down to his trial and his accusations and his accusers as a victim. I don’t know if that’s because I’m from Chicago or ‘cause he made great music or ‘cause he is a black man.”
“We’re programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression,” Chance The Rapper continued. “It’s just prevalent in all media, and when you see n****s getting beat up by the police…that’s like a scene you see…like 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.”
“Usually, n****s that get in trouble for shit like this on their magnitude of celebrity, it’s light-skinned women or white women. That’s when it’s a big story. I’ve never really seen any pictures of R. Kelly’s accusers.”
“I can’t be right all the time,” he concluded. “I made a mistake and I’m happy that those women are getting voices now and I can grow to understand better what my positioning should be or should’ve been when that opportunity came.”
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
Anyone mentioning that I have black women in my family is deliberately missing the point. Regardless of the proximity of beneficial BW in your life, or being black yourself, we are all capable of subconsciously discrediting BW and their stories because its indoctrinated.
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
Only a small portion of Chance The Rapper’s statements were aired in the Surviving R. Kelly documentary, which saw a number of publications report on a version of the quote which saw Chance state, “Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake. I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women. I made a mistake.”
Since then, Chance has taken to Twitter to explain that the original quote was taken out of context, while providing further footage of the interview his comments were taken from.
“The quote was taken out of context,” Chance explained in a note on Twitter. “But 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.”
Check out a clip from Surviving R. Kelly:
