Def Jam has canceled all promotions surrounding
the R.Kelly/Jay-Z collaboration album, Best
Of Both Worlds. After having $100,000 press day at New York’s Waldorf Astoria
that attracted Russell Simmons, Johnnie Cochran and Puff Daddy to name a few,
the plug has been pulled to avoid any negativity being placed on one of Def
Jam’s top artists. “”We don’t want any negative associations that might come
with a video, any accusations or anything,”” Def Jam president Kevin Lyles told
Time magazine in a recent issue. Jay-Z will not appear with Kelly in any pictures
either and recently had his removed from the Vibe magazine which feature R.
Kelly on the cover.
Protests have erupted nation wide over the controversy.
Ten protesters led by Rev. Bamani Obadele and Illinois state Representative
Ken Junkin smashed R. Kelly CD’s at the Chicago radio station, WGCI. The protesters
are urging the station to stop playing Kelly’s music until he issues an explanation.
Kelly phoned in to the station and claimed that he was a victim of his own fame,
saying “”When you’re famous, they expect you to work miracles, and I’m not God.””
In Philly, a gay and lesbian group known as Racial
Unity is picketing Sam Goody record stores to prevent the chain from selling
any R. Kelly music. Just last week, Kelly agreed to settle a lawsuit for an
undisclosed sum brought against him by Tracy Sampson, who claims that Kelly
talked her into having sex with him when she was 17 years old. In Milwaukee,
police arrested DJ Homer Blow of WNOV-AM for hosting a nightclub showing of
the video tape, which allegedly shows R. Kelly having sex with an underage girl
and urinating on her.Blow was also fired
from WNOV for his antics.