Timbaland is letting it be known that, R Kelly is still the king of R&B. “R. Kelly’s the king of R&B. We all know that, man,” the award-winning music producer said during a recent appearance on the “Club Shay Shay”podcast.
“Everybody jump when you say R. Kelly,” Timbaland said. “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,” he added. “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.”
As we previously reported, the rapper Cassidy even spoke out on Kellz behalf and said people have selective outrage when it comes to the R&B singer. “I don’t got no problem with n****s being mad at R. Kelly. If that’s how y’all feel, and y’all feel like what he did makes you mad at heart, cool,” he said. “But be mad at heart and anybody that’s in that bag, like, because there’s a bunch of n****s.” He added that aside from the people in Hollywood, he could easily think of men back in the neighborhood he grew up in that were picking up school girls.
Cassidy continued, “Why do n****s act like they don’t know this? And that’s just regular n*****s.” The Pennsylvania native then told the interviewer to just imagine how bad it must be when it actually comes to the men in the industry before adding that he wouldn’t be able to work with anybody if he was to hold everyone accountable for their actions. “So I ain’t like pointing the finger at R. Kelly and these niggas, like that I ain’t my job. I just respect the n**** music.”
In 2019, Kelly was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse and exploitation of minors. His trial began in August 2021 and lasted for six weeks. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence and testimony from multiple witnesses, including several women who accused Kelly of sexual abuse.
On September 27, 2021, Kelly was found guilty on all counts. He now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.