Chuck D took to social media to clarify his controversial comments on R. Kelly after facing backlash online.
Kelly was found guilty on Monday of being the ringleader of an enterprise which recruited women and underage girls for sex. Kelly was found guilty of nine counts — one count of racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, the Public Enemy frontman tweeted:
“Abused in his youth… an addict as a adult… Ike Turner served 18 months in prison.. Rick James did similar time. Ike came out a changed positive human being. How long should R Kelly spend in prison -and does a USA system give a man a chance for a man to change his world around?” he tweeted.
Kelly has remained defiant since the first allegations surfaced.
Chuck D dismissed claims that his question was “sympathetic.”
“Mixing grown folk lifestyle with black youth was so endorsed financed perpetuated as so urban cool by radio. Black audiences were abused while 25yrs poppin champagne in the sandbox,” he said. “The boundaries were sloppy w head nods. That dude & others gave clues that the gatekeepers ignored.”
Kelly has been abusing Black women and children for decades. Twitter did not react kindly to Chuck D’s attempts to humanize him.
He then returned to Twitter to make his stance clear:
“JUST TO BE CLEAR, I’m not the R Kelly fan here. 75 million sold somewhere & I ain’t got 1 of his songs,” he wrote. “And his actions were criminal my apologies if the wings of perception loomed beyond than the words on this slaveApp …” he wrote before adding that he is launching his own social media platform.
