Erykah Badu Feuds With “Surviving R. Kelly” Producer, Denies That She Was Asked to Participate

Braudie Blais-Billie
Erykah Badu to dream hampton: “I WAS NOT EVER contacted by anyone to be in [the] documentary.”

Today, Erykah Badu took to Twitter to deny producer dream hampton's claim that she refused to appear in Lifetime’s recent docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.” “That’s not true. I’ve never worked with him, don’t know him personally, and was never asked to be a part of the documentary,” she tweeted.

hampton confronted Badu, asserting that the artist was asked to be in the documentary due to her praise of Kelly at the 2015 Soul Train Awards. (As the award show host, Badu introduced Kelly to the stage for his performance by calling him her “brother” and saying he “has done more for black people than anyone.”)

Badu responded to hampton, “I WAS NOT EVER contacted by anyone to be in [the] documentary.” She then demanded an apology from the producer. hampton responded to the demand by reiterating Badu’s 2015 remarks and claiming that Badu was indeed asked to appear in the docuseries via a series of text messages. See the tweets below.

Over the weekend, Badu gave a mid-concert speech in Chicago about “puttin’ up a prayer” for R. Kelly, who has been facing the consequences of long-standing abuse allegations in the past several months. Badu later addressed the backlash she received from the onstage comments on Twitter: “I love you. Unconditionally. That doesn’t mean I support your poor choices.”

“Surviving R. Kelly” featured interviews with women who have accused Kelly of abuse, including his ex-wife Andrea Kelly and Kitti Jones, as well as musicians like Chance the Rapper. Since it aired, Phoenix and Lady Gaga have apologized for working with Kelly in the past; both Gaga and Celine Dion have removed their Kelly collaborations from streaming services. R. Kelly recently denied all allegations of sexual misconduct involving women and underage girls. He’s been dropped from Sony Music and RCA.

Read Pitchfork’s interview with hampton about “Surviving R. Kelly.”

This article was originally posted on January 23 at 1:05 a.m. Eastern. It was last updated on January 23 at 12:35 p.m. Eastern.