Timbaland faces backlash for saying R.Kelly is still the “king of R&B” despite being convicted of sex-trafficking.
During a recent conversation with Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast, Timbaland claimed that R. Kelly is “the King of R&B.”
The accomplished producer from Virginia made the declaration with a few caveats, noting the topic is a loaded one where he says people have to separate the artist from their art.
“R. Kelly’s the king of R&B,” Timbaland stated in the discussion, which was started by the NFL Hall of Famer. “We all know that, man. And it’s funny, I’m glad you talk about that, because I be having talks, everybody jump when you say R. Kelly. I’m like, ‘So we just gonna ignore his music that he gave us, that we all jam to?’ No, we can’t do that. His art is his art, I ain’t gonna bash the man’s art. Don’t mix music up with personal. Music is a feeling, it stands alone. Music is something that don’t have no race, it brings people together. It don’t have no drama with it. It is a place of enjoyment, a feeling, so don’t bring drama into music. Leave that outside.”
For more than two decades, chart-topping R&B singer R. Kelly had faced allegations of sexual abuse.
The accounts went back to the start of his career in the 1990s, with many centring on the predatory pursuit of teenage girls.
In 2022, he was jailed for 30 years after being found guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one of racketeering in a New York court.
Months later, he was convicted of child sexual abuse in a second federal trial in Chicago.
The singer – whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly – is also due to face sexual misconduct charges Minnesota.
Kelly was himself the victim of child sex abuse, and detailed in his autobiography how he was raped by a female family member when he was eight years old.
By Rachael Shieley
