R. Kelly’s bad week just got worse as two prominent Dallas radio stations banned the controversial R&B star’s music.
As the fallout of Lifetime's docuseries Surviving R. Kelly rumbles on, the urban-format stations KRNB and K104 confirmed in segments on-air that they will never again spin Kelly’s songs.
“Smooth R&B 105.7 and K104 made the decision to drop R. Kelly’s music from our playlists due to the outpouring of concern from our listeners regarding Kelly’s alleged sexual assaults of underage girls,” owner Service Broadcasting Corporation explained in a statement. “There are no immediate plans to drop music from any other artists.”
KRNB host Claudia Jordan went into greater detail during her morning show "Up against the background of what we know.... Where there were girls actually locked up in rooms and urinating in buckets and held against their will, even if they were over 18, [Kelly’s music] just has a different meaning now,” Complex reports.
"I just feel like, in good conscience, we just can’t continue to support this guy. Sadly there are a lot of people out there and what they do in their work—they are talented people—but they have demons. And I feel like as a woman that is an advocate for other women.… We cannot support this man anymore. I’ve been a victim of abuse from a man, and it wasn’t as extreme as this. But reading all the comments, we have to at some point take a stance."
K104 morning host DeDe McGuire added, "I'm glad that radio is taking that stance. Radio has always played a major role in the black community... That goes back to the civil rights movement. We have to take care of our own. If the courts won’t take care of [Kelly] in terms of punishing him, then we’ll stop playing his music as punishment."
Kelly’s is reportedly under criminal investigation in Georgia in the wake of explosive accusations made in the six-hour Lifetime series, that aired from Thursday through Saturday. A number of women who appeared in the program accused Kelly of mental, physical and sexual abuse, though the artist’s legal reps countered that the documentary contained false allegations, and suggested the subjects are defaming his client for personal gain.
John Legend, Chance The Rapper and Meek Mill are among the high-profile artists who’ve stepped up to condemn the singer, and the Cook County state's attorney held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday (Jan. 8) to encourage accusers to come forward and tell their own stories to the authorities.
The Dallas development comes after Project Islamic Hope President Najee Ali and Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Monday morning urged iHeartRadio and Radio One to stop playing Kelly's music.