Justice has a voice

Music is a universal artistic language understood by every living soul on the planet,
“According to the Oxford dictionary, music means the instrumental or vocal sounds or both
combined in such a way to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression” (Sharma,
2017). Despite many artists having bad reputations but produce good music, I personally
find “muting” their music will have a major impact in contrast to their criminal charges.

Over the past decade or so, music has shaped itself together with the growth and diversity
of society and in doing so, new artists and genres where born, many falling under the trap
of fame and fortune leading to criminal charges and other illegal activities. There have
been multiple cases over the years, mostly sexual charges, drug induced activities, fraud
and money laundering, these crimes have the power to alter success in the future but as
we see across successful and major platforms, not just music but in all high ranked
occupations, money has the power to overpower the law and this gives way to corruption.
When such forces take over, there’s not much anyone can do, if the law itself has been
compromised, what other means of attention can be drawn to put those with so much
power behind bars or at least some sort of punishment?

There are many campaigns that direct their attention to such matters. “The Mute R Kelly
movement was co-founded by Atlanta Arts administrator Oronike Odeleye and social
justice activist Kenyette Barnes” (Debnath, 2019). This campaigns main objective is to ban
R Kelly’s music across all music distribution and performance platforms and by doing so,
he’s income has been cut short or has it? “R Kelly’s net worth is estimated to be roughly
$1 million dollars as of 2019, and after numerous law suits, complications, allegations, and
even the “Surviving R Kelly” series; he’s net worth has dropped significantly.” (Wealthy
Gorilla, n.d). So there is justice being served and it has taken a huge chunk out of he’s
previous net worth of $150 million dollars according to Wealthy Gorilla (n.d). But this is
only what I believe to be the first step of he’s long overdue punishment.

Even though progress has been made, it seems that in this particular case, R Kelly has
been dunking behind the bush for quite some time, he’s sexual charges go way back to
when he first made billboard hits, “R. Kelly, 27, achieves mainstream success when his
single “Bump n’ Grind” hits number one on the Billboard 100. A month later, his protégé
Aliyah releases her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number, which was almost
entirely written and produced by him.” (Chow,2019). Shortly after he’s discovery, that
same year he marries late singer Aaliyah who was underage at the time, according to
Chow (2019), Kelly secretly marries Aliyah in Chicago. But while the marriage certificate
falsely lists her age as 18, she is actually 15.

R Kelly is just one of many artists in the industry that are using their fame to lore young
women into their sexual desires, not only has he and many others given us a clear
understanding of what a monster looks like, but they are also indirectly setting the
foundation for young artists that follow after them, I think with having so much fame and
money, one would easily break and do things they never thought they would do. The
justice system shouldn’t hold back; these are normal men at the end of the day committing
crimes that have consequence’s and if this problem doesn’t get solved, then I fear R Kelly
will be the least of our problems. Music is supposed to unite people, enhance the moment
and to create memories. As an artist you have a duty from the get go, you have the power
to influence a whole new generation through your creativity.

I’m glad to see some effect on Kelly’s crimes and I would like to see the same among the
rest of the artists that are incapable of being responsible role modules. Personally, if the
law was strict on musicians, none of these things would have happened, like the early
ages when music was seen as a form of medication, but just like modern society, they too
knew the implications and effect music had towards the people, “Plato, Cicero, and
Seneca wanted the state to ban certain harmful music which may affect the behavior of
society.” (Sharma,2019).

Silencing the artist is the first step towards change even without the help of the law, as a
community we hold the power to destroy such actions throughout the industry and to save
the young women from becoming victims of sexual assault.

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