Well some shit you are morally superior on like dating/fucking underage girls for decades on end. That's not really a bad line to draw in the sand in terms of whether or not you want to support an artist. Nobody has said his music wasn't good...that's a huge part of the reason the shit hits people so hard. Because he's such a musical genius it's hard for people to also wrap their minds around the fact he could at the same time be doing the heinous shit he was doing. Also millenials, who people keep mistaking as all teens and 20 year olds for some odd reason, aren't the ones who cancelled R. Kelly. Millenials are in their 30s and 40s at this point. We rocked with his shit through the initial allegations. It's been Gen Z that finally pulled the plug on his career because they didn't accept people trying to pass off songs blatantly written about children as "Well it's just some dope shit" because they ain't have the same memories attached to the songs we did.
And this is where i call bullshit.
There's
TONS of artists that could've been cancelled in the name of "moral superiority."
The Temptations - Pretty common knowledge that David Ruffin beat Tmmi Terrell into a pulp, and maybe responsible for the brain damage that killed her.
Ray Charles - had a history of adulterous behavior and was a heroin addict for decades.
Miles Davis - Had a major history of spousal abuse to all his wives, plus was a junkie for decades.
Marvin Gaye - Do we even need to go into his history?
Teddy Pendergrass - Apparently, love the trans folk, hence partially the reason he was paralyzed. (got into a car accident while getting topped off by one)
Whitney - Cokehead supreme
Biggie - Smacked Kim around, which she already told the story on
I could keep going here, but you all get the point. This whole thing of retroactively deciding to kill artists' career to such your own moral outrage has BEEN bullshit. None of us are perfect; some of us just have fuck-ups that are more public. I don't punish ART for that. I can separate a person's work from their life, and because of that, I don't hold people to a moral barometer that I shouldn't have to.
A pastor? Yeah. Their livelihood should be based on it.
A politician? To a certain extent, yes. Part of them needing public support should be based on how they conduct themselves.
A teacher? Depends. If they're personal life strays away from their professional lives, I could give a shit what they do when there's no kids around them.
But an artist? HELL NO. Why should I give a fuck if Jimi Hendrix was tripped out on acid, if he gave us some of the greatest guitar playing ever? Prince, too, just switching acid for pills.
This is why I don't identify with Millenials and Gen Z. Gen X knows that all of us are flawed, and we're able to co-exist anyway. Not these new muhfuckas. The way they strut around, you'd think all of em have halos already.
