After appearing in the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries, Chance the Rapper apologized to Kelly’s alleged victims as well as his fans for previously working with the singer.
The 25-year-old, born Chancellor Bennett, was featured in the final two hours of the Lifetime documentary centered on R. Kelly's alleged near 30-year-history of sexual misconduct and abuse of women and underage girls.
In May, Chance spoke to culture critic and writer Jamilah Lemieux, formerly of Cassius magazine. The 45-second clip, which was featured in the documentary, focused on the Acid Rap artist and his working relationship with Kelly.
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
"We're programmed to really be hypersensitive to Black male oppression. It's just prevalent in all media," Bennett told Lemieux during an interview. "But black women are, you know, exponentially a higher oppressed and violated group of people, like 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."
HuffPost notes the Chicago native shared the stage with the Chocolate Factory singer before. He also collaborated on the 2015 single “Somewhere in Paradise.”
“Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake,” Chance said.
Controversy surrounded the rapper’s statements after Rolling Stone seemingly took his statements out of context.
Chance allegedly said he did not believe the victims because the victims were Black. After the final episodes from the six-part series aired, he apologized and clarified in a thread of several tweets.
"The quote was taken out of context, 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," he wrote.
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2019
Lemieux attempted to set the record straight. She tweeted Chance supported Black women and the victims involved.
“FYI, I conducted the interview with Chance in May,” she wrote. “He spoke clearly and unequivocally in support of BW and the victims.”
Women, former employees and close associates have come forward with testimonies about Kelly’s predatory methods used to lure young girls away from their families.
Surviving R.Kelly was produced by Detroit filmmaker Dream Hampton.
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