Might be about sex allegations, might not be:
R. Kelly has been dropped by his record label following a stream of accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
Perhaps the cause of the dropping might be those allegations but the willingness to do so will be about sales.
He’s not that big a deal for record companies to care. His last album sold about 140K copies.
But really, this probably makes little difference to him. He loses record company backing, sells independently and keeps more of the loot. He’s not a new band trying to establish a fan base.
I mean, there’s loads of bands who don’t have a record company or just have one that is doing pressing and distribution, the low-end scut work. Because bands like Duran Duran, Marillion or Sparks don’t really need pushing to get an audience. They’ve got one. Not maybe a million seller, but they aren’t going to get that.
Probably six of one, half a dozen of the other.
His record company were OK risking the potential damage to their reputation (sic) while sales were massive and the accusations were few and could just about be hand waved away as being part of his “bad boy” image.
Now sales are much lower and the seriousness of the accusations and public disquiet are increasing exponentially they can’t get Kelly out of the door fast enough.
Sort of – in that they have to balance what he’s selling now against the long-term brand damage (potentially fewer acts signing up with them later).
But R Kelley is still moving a lot of records.
Celebrity hypocrites disavow R. Kelly after DECADES of silence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN-cmk_w6OY