| My biggest question... is how the many people Kelly victimized will begin to heal. |
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Aaliyah performing on TNT's "A Gift of Song," Dec. 10, 1997.
(Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images)
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“My biggest question... is how the many people Kelly victimized will begin to heal.”
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Reporting R. Kelly
Reporters are supposed to report stories, they're not supposed to be the story, but sometimes the world, whether through negligence or malice, gives them no choice. Shoutouts today, and always, to JIM DEROGATIS and DREAM HAMPTON, two ferocious, tireless music reporters who are, without a doubt, the reason R. KELLY is now a convicted sex trafficker facing a possible sentence of life in prison (with more prosecutions to come, in Chicago and Minneapolis). The two of them and, of course, the survivors of music's most notorious predator who testified against him in court, despite trauma, despite blackmail, despite threats, despite a million good reasons every one of them had to not want to put themselves through this. All the survivors, actually: "The ones who talked and the ones who didn't," as hampton tweeted after Tuesday's verdict in Brooklyn, which found Kelly guilty of racketeering and eight counts of trafficking.
DeRogatis has spent 21 years chasing down leads about Kelly's crimes, beginning in 2000, when he got an anonymous fax in response to a review he'd written about Kelly's album TP-2.COM. He and Chicago Sun-Times legal affairs reporter ABDON PALLASCH spent six weeks on that first story, and then DeRogatis kept going, and going, and going, following up every phone call and every lead when almost no one else would, even after Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008, even after a bullet shattered a window in his house while he was home watching a movie, even after three major news organizations that helped him develop his 2016 story about a well organized R. Kelly sex cult (including my old home, MTV News) refused to print it. His fourth choice, Buzzfeed, said yes, and the explosive story made it impossible, finally, for the world to ignore what R. Kelly had done, and was still doing. It had been a lonely crusade.
dream hampton's quest to expose Kelly began in 2000, too, when she read DeRogatis' first piece. She had spent five days with Kelly that summer for a Vibe magazine profile but had missed the signals that DeRogatis' story brought out into the light. "I'd been in JEFFREY DAHMER's kitchen," she wrote years later, "and not opened the fridge." hampton's watershed contribution was the 2019 Lifetime documentary SURVIVING R. KELLY, which did the one thing DeRogatis couldn't do: put Kelly's victims on TV. "For six hours," DeRogatis later said, "viewers saw and heard these women speaking directly to them, and it made a difference." hampton and Lifetime hit a nerve. RCA RECORDS, which had continued to partner with, and profit from, Kelly through the decades of suspicions and whispers and screams and allegations and one infamous videotape, dropped him within days of the Lifetime series airing. The public conversation changed. So, it seemed, did the conversation, and the sense of urgency, inside law enforcement agencies.
There will be plenty of questions while Kelly awaits sentencing next May, and the possibility of at least two more trials. What to do with his music? My friend JEM ASWAD does a good job of laying out the case against literally canceling the abuser's art, which includes some of the most beloved and enduring R&B of the 1990s and early 2000s (and which, like all pop music, exists separately from anything the artist has done while simultaneously having inextricable ties to the artist's identity). What will radio and playlist programmers do? What will RCA do with its back catalog? What will individual music fans do? What will Kelly's fellow pop stars say or do? What should they say or do?
Is this "music's #MeToo moment" and what would that mean? The New York Times' Ben Sisario noted on Monday that "prosecutors focused on his entourage — the managers, handlers and assorted employees who have helped him procure young women and avoid consequences. The sad truth is that this is not uncommon in the music world. One question is whether Mr. Kelly’s conviction will change that." Does the music industry want to change that? Do musicians want to change that? Are they willing to say so out loud?
And, of course, what about the survivors? The conviction, DeRogatis wrote in the New Yorker after the verdict was announced, "is too little, too late." He's witnessed 20 years of trauma and he knows as well as anybody that nothing, in that sense, was resolved on Monday. "There’s no winners in this situation at all," JONJELYN SAVAGE told him. Her daughter JOY fell into Kelly's orbit several years ago, and has yet to return.
Etc Etc Etc
CAA, meet ICM... WARNER, meet TWITCH... Rapper CADENCE WEAPON wins Canada's POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE for his album PARALLEL WORLD... GLOBAL CITIZEN says its 24-hour Global Citizen Live event Saturday, featuring performances by BTS, STEVIE WONDER, ELTON JOHN and scores of others, raised $1.1 billion (largely from governments, foundations and corporations) to fight poverty. The governments of the US ($295 million) and France (60 million Covid-19 vaccination doses for developing countries) were among the major donors... A note on the ROYALTIES CALCULATOR that I linked to on Monday (and am not linking to now): It's calculations appear to be laughably off, mistaking monthly listeners for monthly plays. It's best ignored. Apologies.
Rest in Peace
GEORGE FRAYNE, aka COMMANDER CODY, leader of early country rockers Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, a band that found its calling in the late 1960s after, Frayne once said, "I found a Bob Wills album and marijuana."
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Chicago Tribune |
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| In federal courtroom far from his hometown, remnants of R. Kelly’s superstardom evaporate in sweeping racketeering, sex crimes conviction |
| by Jason Meisner and Megan Crepeau |
| R. Kelly sat nearly motionless in a federal courtroom in New York on Monday, surrounded by his attorneys but looking very much alone. Gone was the superstardom and all the trappings that for years had come with it: The entourage of bodyguards and managers, the drivers and runners, the sycophants and hangers-on, and, most of all, the girls. |
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Vulture |
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| R. Kelly's Accusers |
| by Victoria Bekiempis |
| R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering in his Brooklyn federal court trial on Monday, September 27. Eleven accusers testified at trial. These are their stories. |
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Money 4 Nothing |
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| Digital Dark Ages |
| by Saxon Baird and Sam Backer |
| As we all know, the cloud is far from complete. Artists from De La Soul to Aaliyah have long been absent, while entire eras of music blogs, mid-aughts mixtape culture and MySpace emo bands are simply unavailable, perhaps forever. On this episode, we think through what musical erasure can tell us about the future of listening, fandom, history and more. |
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The Associated Press |
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| After 'Verzuz' series success, Timbaland creates Beatclub |
| by Jonathan Landrum Jr. |
| Timbaland paved his own way as a hit-making producer for elite acts like Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z, but now he’s creating a lane for aspiring music creators to collaborate with the industry’s biggest performers. |
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The New York Times |
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| How Billy Strings Picked His Way to the Other Side |
| by Grayson Haver Currin |
| At 28, the singer and guitarist is bluegrass’s new transgressive star. A decade ago, he didn’t expect to live this long. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| For hip-hop and Black communities, Nicki Minaj's 'Ballgate' is no laughing matter |
| by Keith Murphy |
| When Nicki Minaj became the latest hip-hop artist to spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, she reflected the anxieties of many in Black and brown communities. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Warner Music Group and Twitch ink ‘first-of-its-kind’ partnership |
| by Murray Stassen |
| Deal marks the platform's first partnership with a major record company. |
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Variety |
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| CAA Leaders, ICM Partners Chief on What’s Next for the Agencies After Blockbuster Deal |
| by Cynthia Littleton and Joe Otterson |
| The talks that led to CAA acquiring ICM Partners came together in secret over a short period of time - so much so that longtime insiders at both agencies learned of the deal moments before the news was formally announced on Monday. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘She went her own way’: the tragic and unusual life of folk singer Karen Dalton |
| by Jim Farber |
| In a new documentary, the underrated singer’s life of depression, addiction and poverty is told while her incredible talents are celebrated. |
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The Conversation |
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| How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven's unfinished 10th Symphony |
| by Ahmed Elgammal |
| Thanks to the work of a team of music historians, musicologists, composers and computer scientists, Beethoven’s vision will come to life. |
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Chicago Magazine |
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| The Lonely Crusade of Jim DeRogatis |
| by Mark Caro |
| Over the past 17 years, Chicago’s loudest rock critic has been consumed by an increasingly high-profile undertaking: investigating the allegations of sexual abuse against R&B star R. Kelly. |
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The New Yorker |
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| R. Kelly and the Damage Done |
| by Jim DeRogatis |
| Two decades ago, an anonymous fax made devastating accusations against the R. & B. star. But it took years for the world to listen to his alleged victims. |
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The Sydney Morning Herald |
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| The music industry’s reckoning is far from over |
| by Nathanael Cooper |
| Seven months on the reckoning on inappropriate behaviour in the Australian music industry is only just hitting its straps. |
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The Independent |
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| Tori Amos: ‘I was on my knees emotionally. I could not deal with one more crisis’ |
| by Elizabeth Aubrey |
| The singer-songwriter was at her lowest ebb during the third lockdown, feeling a helplessness about US politics and missing the comfort of her late mother, but writing her truth eventually pulled her through. She talks to Elizabeth Aubrey about feeling lost, feminism, fearlessness, and why she empathises with Billie Eilish. |
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XXL |
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| The Wild and Wonderful World of Tyler, The Creator |
| by Georgette Cline |
| Tyler, The Creator lays claim to arguably the best hip-hop album of the year, and 2021's not even done yet. Close to 15 years in hip-hop at his back and respect from peers and vets alike, the rap visionary has no limits on what he'll do next. |
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Okayplayer |
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| Kari Faux Wants To Be A Lowkey Superstar -- And Help Independent Artists, Too |
| by Robyn Mowatt |
| Kari Faux went from SoundCloud rapper-singer to appearing on the soundtrack of HBO's series Insecure. With Lowkey Superstar Deluxe and her new record label, she's forging her latest chapter as an artist and entrepreneur. |
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Billboard |
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| Universal Music Soared in First Week as Public Company -- What’s Next? |
| by Glenn Peoples |
| Universal Music Group’s first week as a public company was a resounding success. So what's next? |
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Real Life |
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| Nameless Feeling |
| by Ludwig Yeetgenstein |
| Nothing else needs to be said or thought when you can appeal to vibes. |
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Vogue Singapore |
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| Olivia Rodrigo on her upward trajectory to fame, being part of Gen Z and keeping her mental health in check |
| by Amelia Chia |
| 2021 has been Olivia Rodrigo’s year—and she knows better than anyone how it has transformed her life from teen actress to bona fide breakout star. She opens up about her songwriting process, growing up on social media and her rapid rise to global stardom. |
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Variety |
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| Should R. Kelly’s Music Be Banned? |
| by Jem Aswad |
| Now that he’s been found guilty, will his music be removed from major streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music? |
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Sierra Leone x Los Angeles. From "We Famous," out now on Strut Records.
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| Video of the day |
| "How Radio Isn't Done" |
| Ryan Worsley |
| Director Ryan Worsley's documentary on the late Don Joyce of Negativland and his "Over the Edge" radio show. |
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Vimeo |
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Director Ryan Worsley's documentary on the late Don Joyce of Negativland and his "Over the Edge" radio show.
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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