Amid renewed outrage over sexual abuse allegations against R. Kelly following the airing of the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” Sony Music dropped the R&B superstar from its subsidiary RCA Records label.
Now, activists are urging the music company to part ways with other artists on its label who have also faced allegations of sexual abuse or domestic violence.
In an open letter addressed to Doug Morris, the former CEO of Sony Music, Inc., groups associated with the #MuteRKelly movement and Ultraviolet, a national women’s advocacy group, are calling on the record label to drop other controversial artists on their roster. Doug Morris was replaced as head of the music company by Rob Stringer in April 2017.
The letter names Sony artists with a documented or alleged history of sexual and physical abuse, including Chris Brown, who pled guilty in 2009 to felony assault of his then-girlfriend Rihanna and was detained in Paris last week over rape allegations, and Dr. Luke, a Sony manager and producer who was embroiled in a public legal battle with singer Kesha after she accused him of sexual and emotional abuse.
“Choosing to ignore abuse, or worse, glorify a perpetrator of abuse, has a cultural effect far beyond one individual artist,” the letter says. “Sony’s actions have time and again told survivors of sexual violence and would-be perpetrators that there will be no consequences for abuse. It is time that this record of complicity come to an end.”
Read the letter here:
View this document on ScribdLakeisha Gray-Sewell, founder of the Chicago-based “Girls Like Me Project,” a media literacy group, says advocates can be most effective when they vote with their dollar, rather than waiting for action from the music industry.
“The music industry has long been complicit in celebrating and promoting misogyny, sexism and drug use,” Gray-Sewell said. “The public and the consumers are the ones who have to hold people like R. Kelly accountable.”
RELATED:
• The timeline of the R. Kelly child pornography case
• Fallout from ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ documentary tests black community’s loyalties
• Taraji P. Henson, Erykah Badu say comments on R. Kelly misrepresented
• Online petition asks Sony to cut ties with Kesha’s producer
