Can we truly separate the art from the artist?
The other day I was talking to a friend about how much I love R. Kelly's overall discography, specially the Happy People/U Saved Me album. This led us to a conversation about how bad of a person he is and so on and so forth.
It made me think of cancel culture and how exactly we are supposed to cancel an artist. R. Kelly is trash, there's no doubt about that, but he will forever be one of the greatest R&B musicians that has ever lived. The guy is a musical genius who just knows how to make music. I do believe in cancelling artists if they act wrong, but I don't believe in me being forced to quit listening to good music as a result.
Also, id we truly are to cancel an artist, where do we draw the line? What's cancelable and what isn't? Should Jay-Z, Diddy, Nas, Dr. Dre, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj all be held at the stake the same way R. Kelly was? And what about all the new generation artists who have credited R. Kelly as their influence? Should they also be cancelled for it?
The other day I was talking to a friend about how much I love R. Kelly's overall discography, specially the Happy People/U Saved Me album. This led us to a conversation about how bad of a person he is and so on and so forth.
It made me think of cancel culture and how exactly we are supposed to cancel an artist. R. Kelly is trash, there's no doubt about that, but he will forever be one of the greatest R&B musicians that has ever lived. The guy is a musical genius who just knows how to make music. I do believe in cancelling artists if they act wrong, but I don't believe in me being forced to quit listening to good music as a result.
Also, id we truly are to cancel an artist, where do we draw the line? What's cancelable and what isn't? Should Jay-Z, Diddy, Nas, Dr. Dre, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj all be held at the stake the same way R. Kelly was? And what about all the new generation artists who have credited R. Kelly as their influence? Should they also be cancelled for it?