Common is the latest celebrity to criticize the treatment of R. Kelly’s alleged victims.
TMZ spoke to the “Testify” rapper on Tuesday, and he admitted the Black community didn't do all it could have to investigation the accusations of the women and girls.
"We failed as a community because we knew these things were happening," Common said. "And instead of trying to be like, 'Yo, let's go and try to resolve this situation and free these young ladies and stop this thing that's going on,' we were just like, 'Man, we rocking to the music.'"
He also accepted personal responsibility since he and Kelly are from the same city.
"I'm guilty of that too myself because I didn't stop and be like, 'Yo!' and speak against this," the rapper added. "R. Kelly's from my hometown. At the end of the day, he's a human being. He has his issues, and we see that, but I can't condone that, and I shouldn't be allowing that to happen. We failed our community as Black people."
Common follows several of his contemporaries who, as Blavity reported, have publicly criticized the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer. Fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper was apologetic during a May 2018 interview with journalist Jamilah Lemieux.
"We're programmed to really be hypersensitive to Black male oppression. It's just prevalent in all media," he said. "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."
Chance later apologized after the interview upset some viewers.
"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 on Twitter.
B2K frontman Omarion also denounced Kelly and promised to remove any music written by Kelly from his future live shows.
While I know our fans would be greatly disappointed if we didn’t perform those songs on #TheMillennoumTour , after the tour I am retiring those songs from my set list . I too am raising a future queen. #A.A.R.T.
(Artists Acknowledging Responsibility & Truth) Peace y’all. ~O— OMARION (@Omarion) January 7, 2019
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Now, check these out:
Chance The Rapper Pushes Back On Claims He Dismissed R.Kelly's Victims Because They're Black Women
Omarion Says B2K Songs Written By R. Kelly Will Be Cut From Live Sets
