Last week, Soulquarius released its festival lineup. The show will take place on Feb. 18, 2017 at the Observatory Grounds in Orange County and is slated as an ” r&b jam” for music lovers. The list of performers had thousands of social media users posting about their excitement to see both new and old school acts like Jon B, Lloyd, Mya, Brandy, Monica, Jhene Aiko, Kelis, The Internet, Baby Bash, Willow Smith, DMX, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Erykah Badu, and more.
Although the show has received a sea of positive buzz, one artist out of the bunch caused fans to flip their keyboards. Grammy Award-winning singer R. Kelly is listed as a headliner. He may be recognized as the “King of R&B” in the music scene, but he doesn’t have the greatest reputation. R. Kelly has been accused on numerous occasions of serial child rape, sexual assault, and preying on underage girls. He has lost a large percentage of his fan base.
Following the announcement, a petition was written to Change.org titled “Kick R.Kelly’s rapist a** off the SOULQUARIUS lineup,” pressuring the show’s organizers to remove R.Kelly from the lineup. The request is just short of a little under two hundred signatures of the goal to reach one thousand.
The Soulquarius representatives have not made a statement on the petition.
Check out the petition below:
“The Observatory venue of Orange County released an awesome lineup for their SOULQUARIUS event February 18th, with the exception of R.Kelly. Despite an endless flood of abuse allegations and widespread knowledge of his notorious ‘romance’ with the late singer Aaliyah, who was age 15 to his 27 years, Kelly has maintained a relatively successful career. It’s this sort of nonchalance and casual embrace of abusers that rests at the fulcrum of rape culture, violence against women, and in this case, misogynoir. 2017 is around the corner and many of us still have to look on in disgust as a proven predator, rapist, and serial abuser of young Black girls and women remains embraced in the world of music. Stop booking this man. Stop supporting this man. There’s great power in having a voice. Let’s send a message that the music is not ‘separate’ and the abuse of girls and women is ‘never’ okay, no matter who you are or how many timeless ballads you’ve contributed to the world.”
