Kiely Williams has returned to the R&B scene with a video that has abstinence and safe sex advocates reeling. The former 3LW member and Cheetah Girl actress’s new song “Spectacular” is about, in a nutshell, being so drunk until she let a guy basically “take it” and didn’t remember — or care — whether or not he used protection. The lyrics, which she wrote, go as follows: “Last I remember I was face down/*ss up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off/Even though I’m not sure of his name/He could get it again if he wanted.”
The video, filmed by Ed DuRante, includes shots the 23-year-old took with a guy with whom she has a one night stand.
Due to mounting criticism, Williams was forced to make an official statement:
“I am an actor and performer. I have been so since my first role in a television pilot at five-years-old. I am playing a character in the music video for the song ‘Spectacular,’ as I did in the Cheetah Girl movies,” she says. “The fact is that sometimes women get intoxicated and have unprotected sex. My video puts this issue front and center. It is absurd to infer or suggest I am condoning this behavior.”
The singer went on to run down a list of examples where art was viewed as separate from real life.
“Are Lady Gaga and Beyonce advocating murder with the ‘Telephone’ video? Of course not. Was Rihanna encouraging suicide with ‘Russian Roulette’? No. Was Madonna suggesting that young, unmarried girls get pregnant with ‘Papa Don’t Preach‘? I don’t think so. Is Academy Award winner Mo’Nique a proponent of incest because of her betrayal of Mary in the movie Precious? Clearly, the answer is no.”
In what some consider a convenient turnabout, Williams goes on to claim she was highlighting women’s health and safety issues with the song and video and people shouldn’t “shoot the messenger.” Do you buy it or is it an attempt to make enough waves to garner mass attention? What are your thoughts? –gerald radford
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