Sony and R. Kelly have “agreed to part ways,” Billboard reports. I guess that’s the polite way of saying they’ve finally dropped his child-molesting ass.
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Neither Sony nor R. Kelly have made an official statement yet. According to Variety, Kelly’s back catalog will remain with RCA/Sony and his music is still available on streaming services and digital retailers.
Since the airing of Lifetime’s horrifying documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, pressure has been mounting on Sony (and RCA Records, which is owned by Sony) to drop R. Kelly.
On Wednesday, protestors gathered outside Sony’s New York headquarters demanding the singer be dropped. Earlier this month, a plane carrying a banner with the message “RCA/Sony: Drop Sexual Predator R. Kelly” was flown over Sony’s offices in Culver City, CA.
A petition calling for him to be dropped has gathered over 217,000 signatures.
R. Kelly has been signed to Sony for over a decade. In 2012, he joined the Sony subsidiary RCA and released four especially grossly-titled albums including Black Panties and The Buffet. Despite funding — and, of course, profiting off — his career in the face of continual allegations, Sony has finally succumbed to public pressure and decided to do the right thing.
Hold the applause, though; RCA just recently signed Chris Brown, whose troubled history with women is also well documented.
