Freddie Gibbs has clarified that he isn’t calling for R. Kelly’s freedom after he shared a video of himself singing along to one of the disgraced singer-songwriter’s tracks.
In a video shared via his Instagram Stories, Gibbs was seen singing along to an R. Kelly track, alongside the caption, “Probably one of the best songs recorded #prayforRKelly.” In a follow-up post, however, he stressed that his suggestion that anyone should “pray” for R. Kelly isn’t an endorsement or a call for freedom. “I didn’t say free that n***a now calm down,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first time Gibbs has praised R. Kelly’s music while distancing himself from his alleged sex crimes, for which he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison in New York, and 20 years in prison by a Chicago jury.
“Too many sex crimes, sex crimes, Weinstein, Epsteins,” Gibbs rapped on the song “Wolverine,” which dropped last year. “Them crackers rich forever, you Black, they want the whole thing / R. Kelly singing for commissary / And no, I don’t condone the shit he did, he got heat in my library.”
R. Kelly is a convicted sex offender and the subject of separating the art from the artist comes up a lot in reference to him, especially considering the severity of the crimes he has been accused of. Gibbs seems to be okay with the concept, while many others are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not.
