Surviving R. Kelly airs tonight and the docuseries' executive producer Dream Hampton that many celebrities declined being interviewed for the Lifetime documentary. Among the artists she listed were Dave Chappelle, Jay-Z, Erykah Badu, and Mary J. Blige, among others. Hampton revealed a conversation she had with The Roots drummer Questlove who ultimately declined the opportunity.
"I remember Ahmir ["Questlove" Thompson] was like, 'I would do anything for you but I can't do this.' It's not because they support him, it's because it's so messy and muddy," she said. "It's that turning away that has allowed this to go on."
After many fans got in Questlove's mentions, revealing how disappointed they were in him for turning down the docuseries, he revealed exactly why he didn't want to participate in it in a pair of since-deleted tweets captured by Complex.
"I always thought Kels was trash. My reason for declining the RKelly docu that I support 10000000 percent is I didn’t wanna be in the 'good times' portion of the doc, like stanning for his 'genius,'" he said on Twitter in a since-deleted tweet. "I was asked to talk about his genius. I do not nor have I EVER stanned for him"
He added, "Just wanna make that abundantly clear in a non 'he doth protest too much' way. That [hampton] quote makes it look like I'm protecting him. I'm thinking 'damn I don't wanna be the one guy I always am in documentaries fawning over someone I detest.' So make ZERO mistake on my positioning."
Hampton later responded to Questlove, saying that she never asked him to talk about R. Kelly's genius. Quest deleted his tweets shortly after.
