Gaga mentioned in Surviving R. Kelly: The Impact

[ACT2 3,267]

thank god they didn't bring up that video where she says "me and rkelly are misunderstood"

[SharkmanthaC 114,690]

10 minutes ago, rasclautmangos said:

From what I can tell, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, at the time R Kelly wasn't actually accused of rape or many of the other things he's accused of now. Up to that point in 2012/2013 he was only accused of having s*x with 16/17 year olds and having videos/pictures of the girls engaging in s*xual acts with him. 

Not that that's much better....but he was acquitted of those charges. A lot of people worked with him after the fact and he ended up having a lot of success musically.

A LOT of people thought he was falsely accused, and was just being hounded by the media when he was actually innocent. I guess Gaga was one of those people.

All the extra shyt about R Kelly came out after Gaga did a song with him.

There were lots of allegations before Gaga worked with him.  Enough to make her question it.  It's possible she just didn't look into him that much and didn't know.  She doesn't seem like she follows R&B closely.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/10/entertainment/r-kelly-timeline/index.html

[Miel 15,009]

2 hours ago, shame said:

i will forever never understand what compelled her to believe it would be okay to work on a song together with R Kelly, especially given the lyrical content of the song in question

I remember (maybe falsely) around the time of the release, she mentioned that she included R. Kelly and Terry for the video because all three of them shared the commonality of the media falsely tearing them down. In an ideal situation, it would have been a win-win, in that the drama and publicity would conjure a huge, bold, and ultimately harmless statement against tabloid media culture.

In the end, it was the worst case scenario where she was unfortunately wrong on almost all accounts.

[Born Brave 2,072]

Gaga has publicly discussed her traumatic experience involving rape and RK needs no explanation or introduction as an alleged rapist / abuser. What must have been going through her mind as she shot that music video and what compelled her to even go along with it in the first place? It’s unlikely we will ever know the exact details but we can speculate conclusions if you consider some events that coincided the release of DWUW and shortly after. 
 We know that DWUW was intended to be simply a promotional single since Venus was supposed to succeed the lead single. A music video was already conceptualized and we can also verify the intent to release Venus to radio as DJWS teases that the producer of the second single was a female (later to be revealed as Gaga herself). DWUW was released as a promo single and received heavy attention on digital streaming and sales which prompted the decision for it to become the second single. As some of you may remember, this pushed back the release of Venus which sent fans into an uproar of disapproval towards Gaga and ultimately DWUW as a whole. To further intensify the turbulence, we know there was an abrupt and shocking decision for Troy Carter and Gaga to end their longstanding partnership- just days before the release of ARTPOP. When you look at the magnitude of this event, it seems absolutely unfathomable that this would occur on the doorstep of the pairs 4th album release. Troy Carter, a venture capitalist as well as manager, had been intertwined with Gaga from the beginning of her tenure at Interscope / Streamline records. Together, they had amassed critical acclaim, Grammy awards, platinum albums, and record breaking views on YouTube during the time when pop acts such as Britney Spears, Rihanna, Katy Perry, The Black Eyed Peas, and Kesha were all experiencing the prime of their careers. Lets simmer and think  about that for a minute.... 

So why did they cut ties at such an unexpected moment given all of the above? 
I strongly believe in my heart that Gaga did not want anything to do with R.Kelly on the song but she was being left with no choice. Meanwhile, she was dealing with the backlash from the fan base over Venus getting booted so that the song that she didn’t even want to be a part of could get the nod and nursing a hip injury from not even 8 months prior. To stay true to herself, and to be a ‘Free Woman’ and not someones “free bitch”, she had to literally risk her entire career because of a situation that she should have never been put into.

Just food for thought. I’d be interested and curious in the possibilities of others feeling this way too. 

 

[Miel 15,009]

1 hour ago, SamanthaC said:

There were lots of allegations before Gaga worked with him.  Enough to make her question it.  It's possible she just didn't look into him that much and didn't know.  She doesn't seem like she follows R&B closely.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/10/entertainment/r-kelly-timeline/index.html

I think another factor was outside influences saying they should collaborate. I know Tara and DJWS are big fans, he was essentially a legacy performer, and I think he had an album out around that time under the same/umbrella label?

Everything that could have went wrong went wrong lmao

[ToxicHot 6,444]

THANK YOU FOR SHARING!  

It's honestly such an unfortunate series of events that these allegations/scandals have smeared the careers of everyone who had worked with R. Kelly in the past, especially because music is meant to be a celebration of creativity and an expression of art. It's sad to see (almost) everyone backtrack and serve an apology to the world. Because it truly is a negative mark on their image if they don't. 

I will ALWAYS love Do What U Want. It's definitely one of my all-time favorite songs ever and it's in my top 5 from Gaga herself. I love what the song means - a message to the critics and haters that no matter what you say about me, "you can't have my heart and you won't use my mind", "you can't stop my voice 'cause you don't own my life". Those are some words to literally LIVE BY.

This song has always stood by me, especially because I was in high school when it came out. Personally, I love the R&B touch it has to it and R. Kelly's contribution. Their voices just work so well together. And let's be real - this collaboration was always meant to have some sort of controversy to it. There's honestly no coincidence he was chosen for it. He had faced a lot of public scrutiny just like Gaga had (for different reasons.....obviously), I mean you have to admit he kinda works perfectly (TOO MUCH, PERHAPS) for the meaning of the song. 

Anyway..... I'm sad to see Gaga face backlash over a decision she had made 6+ years ago. But at the same time, I'm so glad she spoke out about it when she did and stood up for what was right.

 

Edit: Also, this song deserved sooooo much better. Should've been a top 10 hit for sure, perhaps even #1? This whole situation has made it become extremely underrated (and for good reasons, I suppose).  To this day it still sounds fresh. I said what I said. And even though I actually really enjoy R. Kelly on the song, the solo version sounds great too (I never really felt the Xtina remix tbh).

[PhuckGagaDaily 481]

Blame Tara and DJWS for the collaboration. They were huge fans and I remember vaguely Tara saying she helped convince Gaga to go on and record to duet. 
 

The thing that irks me and will continue to irk me as long as I am a fan.... is how she defended him when people criticized her for that collaboration. She defended and said that the media writes a lot of untrue things about both of them and that that was the reason why the song was written. When the documentary first aired, she took her sweet ass time to issue an apology and I think it was to come up with the right thing to say to demonstrate how sorry and embarrassed she was of the entire fiasco. I think she even said that she said and did stupid things when she was younger; that is never an excuse. Everyone in the music industry knew about the allegations. 
 

Anyway, glad they did not add any of that into that documentary... it would have been so bad.

[Guest]

"It only made it to #13 on the top one hundred"

I SCREAMED AND I YELLED

 

 

[God Control 2,181]

Yup, people once again trying to throw somebody’s sins on someone else. Just freaking get over it. The guy did things and he should’ve been tried by the government, not a by a singer apologizing for singing a song with him. Not sure how long this brain-dead mentality is going to last, the whole “I wanna boycott this so I can pat myself on the back and think I’m making a difference all while paying taxes to my government that supports nations that beheads women and gays and pretend to have morals”. mentality is beyond sick.

Do What U Want (feat. R-Kelly) was a great song, and the fact that the person in the song did terrible things should’ve been solved by the law, none of this was ever gonna affect the quality of the song, which is ultimately what listening to music is all about. Gaga could be discovered to be a Nazi or a murderer and Bad Romance will still sound just as good as it does now.