When it was announced that Grammy-winning R&B singer R. Kelly would join HuffPost Live’s Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani this morning for an interview, anyone old enough to play a Milton Bradley board game, I imagine, had the same response:
I'm gonna be honest, a Twitter Q&A with R. Kelly might just be the worst idea of 2015…and possibly 2016.
— Jas Waters (@JasFly) December 21, 2015
Modarressy-Tehrani first asked Kelly why he thought his latest album, “Buffet,” isn’t selling as well as his previous, “Black Panties.”
“People can get on computer and download anything they want nowadays,” Kelly said.
Why do you think people aren’t [supporting you]?” Modarressy-Tehrani asked, reading aloud the following tweet as an example of why fans are “conflicted” between R. Kelly the “musical genius” and R. Kelly the accused statutory rapist:
Would I let R. Kelly babysit my daughters? Fuck no. Would I play his music at a family party? Ya gotdamn right
— 🥷🏽 (@Vaughntay3) December 11, 2015
Rebutted Kelly, “Fuck that.”
Modarressy-Tehrani pressed the concern.
“I didn’t come here for negative,” Kelly said. “I came here for positive.”
“Any other negative things come at me out of your mouth,” Kelly threatened Modarressy-Tehrani, “I’m gonna get up, and I’m gonna walk out, and I’m gonna go to McDonald’s.”
Asked whether he has a healthy relationship with sex, Kelly called the interview a deposition. “You have one more question,” he then told Modarressy, who begrudgingly complied before Kelly took off his mic and left the set.
Twitter reacted dutifully:
This R. Kelly interview is one of the craziest things I've ever seen and I'm not even done. Good for you @CaroMT https://t.co/6GLsfXFl8s
— Irin Carmon (@irin) December 21, 2015
Really puts celebrity interviews into perspective when you see one that isn't like that. At all. https://t.co/ivOYaIpHG4 Highly recommended.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 21, 2015
Watch the full interview below via HuffPost:
