Ever since R. Kelly performed on the 2015 Soul Train Awards a few weeks back, people have been flooding the interwebs to express their disdain for the Pied Piper due to his past acts of pedophilia, which he was never convicted of by the way. But, to be fair, if you saw the tape, then you would have to be an idiot to NOT believe that that wasn’t R. Kelly in that video. Fast forward from the Soul Train Awards to today & R. Kelly is once again back in the news for the same reasons…
These days if you are a fan of R. Kelly’s music or if you are a fan of Bill Cosby’s past tv shows & movies somehow the internet has deemed you to be basically nothing but a despicable human being who flat out supports pedophilia & rape. For some reason, people are not allowed to possess the intellect to separate the artist’s work from the actual artist. Real talk. That’s just the way things are these days I suppose. But here’s where I’m about to hurt some feelings out there for all of the people who want to vilify people who do possess the skill sets to separate the artist from the art….WHAT ABOUT TUPAC?
That’s right. WHAT ABOUT TUPAC SHAKUR?
You know, the same Tupac that gave us timeless classics like “Brenda’s Got A Baby”, “Dear Momma”, “How Do You Want It”, “I Get Around”, “Hail Mary”, “California Love”, “Death Around The Corner” (my personal all time favorite Tupac song)…and the list can go on & on & on & on. I mean, this is the same Tupac in which music video director Benny Boom got the green light to produce a biopic of that I’m sure EVERYBODY can’t wait to see.
But guess what, as amazing as an artist & equally amazing as his mind was in regards to revolution & social change….guess what?
TUPAC WAS ALSO A CONVICTED RAPIST. Or did we all forget about that?
I mean, I guess we’re just going to forget that Tupac was convicted of FIRST-DEGREE SEXUAL ABUSE (rape) back in 1993. During the sentencing phase of his trial, the judge stated that what Tupac was convicted of was (and I quote) “an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman.” AN ACT OF BRUTAL VIOLENCE AGAINST A HELPLESS WOMAN. Let that sink in for a minute.
So, you mean to tell me that I’m not allowed to be a fan of R. Kelly’s music due to his acts of pedophilia which he was never convicted of BUT, it’s cool for me to be a fan of Tupac even tho he WAS CONVICTED of FIRST-DEGREE SEXUAL ABUSE? Is this how the game goes these days?
Hate to break this to all of you faux outrage interwebers out there, but I’m still a huge fan of Tupac as I am a fan of R. Kelly. Well, let me clear up my stance on R. Kelly. The last album I liked by R. Kelly was Chocolate Factory, everything after that….meh. I don’t really fuck with it.
But my point is…how can some of you people jump up and down and chastise people for liking R. Kelly but yet purposefully overlook that fact that arguably the greatest hip hop artist of all time WAS a convicted rapist. Not an alleged rapist, but a CONVICTED RAPIST. And to this day, damn near all of us worship at the alter of Tupac for his contributions to hip hop & social change. That rape stuff tho…we’ll just push that to the side.
#MyBad
#iWasntSupposedToSayThat
My follow up article on Tupac can be read HERE.
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