The mistake Chance The Rapper made with R Kelly: “I can’t be right all the time”
Chance The Rapper collaborated with R Kelly in 2015 on a song called ‘Somewhere in Paradise’, which is something he went on to regret. The Chicago rapper removed the song from all streaming platforms in 2019 following Surviving R Kelly, a documentary series that detailed sexual abuse allegations against the singer.
Kelly featured on the second chorus of Chance’s track, which was released before his Coloring Book mixtape but didn’t make the final cut. Chance premiered the song during his appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2015, although Kelly wasn’t present.
All of the allegations against Kelly in 2019 forced Chance to apologise for working with the artist in the first place, despite years of people accusing Kelly of sexual abuse. “Making a song with R Kelly was a mistake,” he said during an interview, which partially appeared in Surviving R Kelly. “At the time, it wasn’t even present in my mind that people could feel any type of way about his presence on a track of mine.”
He continued, “I think for a long time I was only able to understand R Kelly’s situation and presence in the world when it comes down to his trial and his accusations and his accusers as a victim. I don’t know if that’s because I’m from Chicago or ‘cause he made great music or ‘cause he is a black man.”
Both being from Chicago, the pair have crossed paths on several occasions. Chance brought out Kelly at Lollapalooza in 2014 and described him as the “Pied Piper of R&B,” while also making a cameo appearance in Kelly’s ‘Backyard Party’ music video.
“We’re programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression,” he said. “But black women are exponentially [a] higher oppressed and violated group of people just in comparison to the whole world. Maybe I didn’t care because I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women. Usually, n*ggas that get in trouble for shit like this on their magnitude of celebrity, it’s light-skinned women or white women. That’s when it’s a big story. I’ve never really seen any pictures of R Kelly’s accusers.”
He concluded, “I can’t be right all the time. I made a mistake and I’m happy that those women are getting voices now and I can grow to understand better what my positioning should be or should’ve been when that opportunity came.” Kelly was convicted on multiple charges involving child sexual abuse in 2021 and 2022, with the singer currently serving a 31-year combined sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina.
“R Kelly used his fame, fortune and enablers to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification, while many turned a blind eye,” US Attorney Breon Peace said about his sentence. “Through his actions, Kelly exhibited a callous disregard for the devastation his crimes had on his victims and has shown no remorse for his conduct.”
He added, “With today’s sentence he has finally and appropriately been held accountable for his decades of abuse, exploitation and degradation of teenagers and other vulnerable young people.”