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R Kelly

Vince Staples Makes An Enemy Of R Kelly In Coachella Interview, Because R Kelly Sucks

Why aren't more people done with R Kelly? Why are we still dancing to 'Ignition'? Why aren't more people like Vince Staples, just in general?

Vince Staples is reliably one of the most entertaining rappers working today – not just onstage or on record, but on Twitter and in interviews.

Staples is a 24-year-old genius with a biting wit and a total allergy to BS, who pulls absolutely no punches and knows exactly what he’s doing at all times (he’s famously straight-edge so he’s always dead sober).

Exhibit Whatever-We’re-Up-To-Now: this interview he gave at Coachella over the weekend where he brought out more real talk on R. Kelly than most of the music industry has managed in 20 years.

The read was in the service of his point about how a rapper and former gang member from Long Beach gets less leeway than the ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ crooner who allegedly pees on children and allegedly imprisons women in his rape mansion, all without remorse. Allegedly.

“You don’t go to prison if you’re a black entertainer,” Staples tells Complex’s Nadeska Alexis backstage at Coachella. “Only if you’re a black gangster rapper. I’m changing my whole path.

“Think about it: R. Kelly never went to jail, and he’s a f**king child molester. He’s a child molester and he pees on people and he can’t read and write, and he didn’t go to jail.

“I’m a good person—R. Kelly’s a piece of f**king s**t. So if piece of f**king s**t R. Kelly didn’t go to jail for being a child molester and peeing on people and having a human trafficking ring in Atlanta, then I’ll be all right.”

If you weren’t already pounding your knee with a fist all “YES THANK YOU”, he goes on, after the interviewer shifts uncomfortably and says “We can’t talk about that guy”, Staples goes on:

“Because R. Kelly a piece of s**t? He don’t work here. They should have booked R. Kelly if they like R. Kelly so much. He would have pissed on somebody in the crowd. Because he pees on people.”

Unsurprisingly, Kelly’s apparently heard about it and he’s mad. SO annoying when you have an alleged history of allegedly being a sexual predator of underage girls and people keep calling you on it.

We can all be a bit more like Vince Staples. We can’t all make blistering, ahead-of-its-time rap and get onstage with Kendrick at Coachella, but we can all collectively decide to be extremely done with R. Kelly.

Do you think Vince Staples winces and then makes this face:

And stays on the dancefloor when ‘Ignition’ comes on?

No. Because Vince Staples has integrity, and R. Kelly is a piece of s**t.

Nobody’s saying that you can never dance, ever, to any musician who’s ever done anything wrong. You decide where your line is, where you stop being able to enjoy someone’s music because of what they’ve done and when you actively decide to be done with it.

Reading pretty much any entertainment headline in 2018.

Conflicted about those Nelly allegations? Up to you whether you can still enjoy ‘Country Grammar’. Still hurting over Brand New? Look, sometimes you might need to huddle under the covers and listen to ‘Soco Amaretto Lime’ and think of more innocent times and that’s your call.

Remember how John Lennon beat women and every one of your favourite classic rock stars, from Iggy Pop to Zeppelin to the Stones to Bowie all the way back to Jerry Lee Lewis, had a bunch of sex with underage girls? Yup. You can’t dance at your average family wedding for six straight minutes without something like that popping into your head.

That’s my favourite Smashing Pumpkins song! (Oh, I just remembered Billy Corgan’s an MRA now. Goddammit.)

But one thing we can all agree on, surely, is that R Kelly is definitely a piece of s**t.

In a world where plenty of your faves are still happy to cameo in Chris Brown videos, defend working with Woody Allen, and plenty of famous dudes will be vague and diplomatic even when asked direct questions, it’s downright cathartic to watch someone call out a renowned piece of s**t as just that.