Protestors gathered on Wednesday, demanding that R. Kelly be dropped from his record label.
The fallout of the Surviving R. Kelly documentary continues apace.
Along with the news that the six-part series will air on Irish television next month comes a high profile protest in New York City against the singer.
On Wednesday morning, demonstrators gathered outside Sony Music’s headquarters in Manhattan with the demand that the artist, who is under renewed fire in the wake of the Lifetime documentary, is dropped from his label.
Last weekend, R. Kelly strongly denied all allegations of sexual misconduct via his lawyer Steve Greenberg.
“The allegations aren’t true because he never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone,” said Greenberg.
Greenberg also noted that streams of his client’s music have largely increased in recent weeks.
Those assembled in New York included members of various activism outlets including #MuteRKelly, the Black Women’s Blueprint, Color of Change, CREDO, Girls for Gender Equity, NOW-NYC and UltraViolet.
A joint statement highlighted the Surviving R. Kelly documentary as “an unignorable investigation into R. Kelly’s decades of alleged sexual abuse of young black women and girls, and those in the music industry that have not only enabled him, but profited from him.”
In calling for RCA Records and parent company Sony to remove Kelly from their roster, the statement argued that, “no company should be profiting from a man who physically, mentally, and sexually abuses black girls.”
The rally also saw the distribution of petitions signed by over 217,394 people demanding that R. Kelly be dropped from RCA.
In addition to that, the protestors presented a ‘Record Label of Shame’ award to Sony Music and RCA Records.
Similar rallies have taken place at RCA’s west coast offices as well as outside Kelly’s recording studio in Chicago, which he is reportedly facing eviction from due to unpaid bills.
“YOU did nothing to cause this violence.” –@BlackWomensBP’s Sharaya Tindal to survivors #MuteRKelly #DropRKelly pic.twitter.com/4UoFisTiti
— UltraViolet is not paying for this (@UltraViolet) January 16, 2019
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