Video: While So Many Artists Keep Mum, Chicago Rapper Vic Mensa Has Blasted R. Kelly

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 31, 2017 3:25PM

Shortly after Buzzfeed News dropped its bombshell report on R. Kelly—in which the R&B singer was alleged to be holding women against their will in cult-like homes—the site followed up by asking more than 40 former collaborators if they'd work with him again. The silence was overwhelming.

Rapper and fellow Chicagoan Vic Mensa has never worked with R. Kelly, but over the weekend he shot through the shameful reticence that has permeated in corners of the music industry.

“F**k R. Kelly,” Mensa said in a quick, on-the-street interview with TMZ. “R. Kelly is a scumbag and a very dirty man. He needs to be locked away forever.”

In the first two-thirds of the clip, the interviewer asks about Justin Bieber's abruptly cancelled tour dates, for which Mensa was scheduled to open 14. (Mensa has no hard feelings.) The R. Kelly exchange happens at around the 1:15 mark.

Lets hope similar testimonies start piling up.

The Buzzfeed report was written by veteran Chicago music critic and journalist Jim DeRogatis. Kelly was alleged to have controlled "every aspect" of the lives of six women, including "what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records." A petition calling on RCA Records to drop Kelly has amassed more than 34,000 supporters.

Mensa's debut full-length, The Autobiography, was released on Friday.

[H/T Pitchfork]