Ne-Yo is still a huge fan of R. Kelly’s music, despite the disgraced singer’s crimes.
According to him, he refuses to boycott R. Kelly entirely because he strongly believes in seprating the art from the artist.
“I have always been a person that can separate the artist from the art,” he said in a recent interview with The Independent. “I don’t give a damn about your personal life, I don’t give a damn about what you’ve done wrong, or what you’ve done right—if I like the song, and it’s attached to a memory that means something to me, it has nothing to do with [the artist] as a person anymore. It’s what this song means to me.”
He continued, “I’ve been in parties where someone will turn on an R. Kelly record, and people will be like ‘Boo!’ That’s bullshit, because you know good and well that before this happened, you’d be rocking out to this song, just like everybody else. From time to time, I still listen to R. Kelly music; you just can’t deny the quality. Anybody who tries to say R. Kelly isn’t one of the best songwriters on the face of the planet because of what he did in his personal life, you’re looking at the wrong thing.”
It is worthy to note that he once slammed R. Kelly in 2019. “There is NO excuse,” Ne-Yo wrote at the time. “Music is important. It really is. But it’s not more important than protecting our children, protecting our little girls. PERIOD. #IHaveADaughter #TF!?? #MUTERKELLY.”
We wonder why he changed his mind.
