Chance The Rapper Apologizes For Working With R. Kelly
Chance the Rapper is breaking his silence about working with R. Kelly.
The Chicago musician apologized to alleged victims of sexual abuse and misconduct at the hands of R. Kelly, admitting that he never should have worked with him. In an audio recording featured in Surviving R. Kelly, Chance, 25, called their 2015 collaboration on "Somewhere in Paradise" a "mistake."
The documentary also featured an excerpt from an interview Chance did with Jamilah Lemieux, in which he said he "didn't value the accusers' stories [because] they were black women." Chance shared a full video from their discussion, which provided context for his quote.
"We're programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression. It's just prevalent in all media. Like slavery for a lot of people, they envision men in chains, but black women are exponentially a higher oppressed and violated group of people 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," he said in the interview.
As the latest episode of Surviving R. Kelly aired, the "No Problem" singer posted an elaborate apology on Twitter. He wrote that he shouldn't have "ignored the R Kelly stories," adding that he did so "at the detriment of black women and girls."
"The quote was taken out of contest, 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," Chance wrote. "I apologize to all of his survivors for working with him and for taking this long to speak out."