R. Kelly and his label, RCA, will finally sever their ties after weeks of protests and pressure following the airing of the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly and years of sexual misconduct allegations against the singer. Additionally, celebrities including John legend, Lady Gaga, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill and Jada Pinkett Smith have spoken out against Kelly. Billboardfirst reported the news citing unnamed sources.
Reps for RCA and its parent company, Sony, did not return Rolling Stones requests for comment. On Friday, Kellys name was removed from RCAs website.
Don Russell, an advisor and consultant for Kelly, tellsRolling Stonethat the singer had two albums left on his contract with RCA, though its unclear what the status of those albums are. RCA was not involved in recent releases such as Born to My Music, which Kelly released earlier this month, or last years 19-minute song I Admit.
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Asked if Kelly is considering any legal action against the label, Russell said, Our goal is not to go after anybody because he wants everybody to be happy, claiming that multiple record labels are very interested in working with the singer. (Rolling Stone was unable to independently verify Russells claim.)
We understand RCAs position: they have to remain transparent for the sake of the other artists that they represent and generate wealth for, Russell tellsRolling Stone.Theyre not in the position of dealing with the kind of stuff that has come about with R. Kelly. He has no issue with RCA. I think hes outgrown RCA. Hes ready for the next level of life, anyway. It makes sense for them to shake hands and say, This train has run its course and I wish you guys the best and lets move on.'
Kellys relationship with the label dates back more than 25 years. His group, Public Announcement, released an album on Jive (then a subsidiary of BMG) and after he went solo, Jive released a string of platinum- and multiplatinum-selling albums by the artist. When Sony purchased BMG, Jive fell under the Sony umbrella and was eventually folded into RCA. Kelly released his first RCA record, Write Me Back, in 2012.The New York Times claims he has sold 32 million albums for the label in the U.S. Kellys most recent releases have been posted online without the labels involvement.
The New YorkTimesreports that the label has been in talks with Kellys legal team for months to discuss his status on RCA.
Pressure has been mounting for the label to drop the artist since the advent of the #MuteRKelly campaign in the summer of 2017 decades after allegations of misconduct first surfaced. In the mid-Nineties, women sued him, claiming hed had sex with them when they were as young as 15. Then video of Kelly allegedly having sex with and urinating on a 14-year-old girl came to light in 2002; he was acquitted of 21 counts of child pornography in 2008 when the woman refused to testify. Allegations of false imprisonment and sexual manipulation against the singer have arisen in recent years, stemming from a BuzzFeed News article that described him as a cult leader, and Rolling Stone detailed one womans story in late 2017.
Since Surviving R. Kelly aired, an online petition for the label to cut its ties to Kelly has garnered nearly 111,000 signatures. Additionally, protesters gathered around New Yorks Sony building on Wednesday of this week.
Until now, both RCA and Sony have stayed silent about Kellys status on the label. It seems a little defiant to me, Kenyette Tisha Barnes, a co-founder of the #MuteRKelly campaign, told Rolling Stone last week. Right now, our petition has over 75,000 signatures and each one of those signatures are hitting the inboxes of executives at [RCAs parent company] Sony and RCA, and yet they have not completely divested. That, to me, is just shocking, especially when Im sure R. Kelly is not one of their largest-selling artists.
This story is developing.