Time's Up, a celebrity-led movement aiming to fight sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry has announced that they will be taking a stand against R. Kelly.
The statement comes from Time's Up's Women of Color committee, which aims to organize around issues that especially affect women of color. In their statement originally published by The Root, they say that they will be joining an existing boycott campaign, #MuteRKelly, in response to the singer's string of sexual assault allegations.
In addition, they will be calling on numerous corporations to distance themselves from Kelly, including his current label RCA Records, Ticketmaster, Spotify, Apple Music, and Greensboro Coliseum Complex, a North Carolina concert venue which will be hosting Kelly in May.
The boycott efforts have already begun to affect Kelly, as it was announced that his upcoming show at UIC in Chicago would be cancelled.
The statement mentions that Kelly has sold 60 million albums and toured around the world, while also listing some of his past behavior, including marrying an underage Aaliyah, being sued by multiple women for sexual misconduct, and being indicted on 21 counts of child pornography.
The Time's Up movement was originally started in response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal that rocked the entertainment industry, and has been supported by celebrities such as Rita Ora, Kelly Clarkson, and Cyndi Lauper.
The statement is finished with, "we demand appropriate investigations and inquiries into the allegations of R. Kelly’s abuse made by women of color and their families for over two decades now. And we declare with great vigilance and a united voice to anyone who wants to silence us: Their time is up."
