Surviving R. Kelly<\/em> with Brie Miranda Bryant and Tamra Simmons, says her thoughts post-sentencing have been around the value of an apology from Kelly that never came this week.<\/p>\n\u201cI just think about the culture and how important it would have been if he would have owned the harm he created and apologized,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Hampton says Kelly deserved the 30-year sentence, but adds that she doesn\u2019t believe the U.S. prison system is a place for rehabilitation or restorative justice for victims and survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is an incredibly broken justice system,\u201d Hampton says. \u201cIn the world where I\u2019ve lived most of my life, in America as a Black person, I don\u2019t always look to this criminal justice system for actual justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The #MeToo movement helped bring Kelly down, but Hampton says an apology from Kelly would have had increased value now that the cause for gender equality is facing a stiff backlash. \u201cWhat an apology would mean in this moment, where we are firmly and clearly in the blowback stage of the #MeToo movement and where, as Black people, we\u2019re navigating all of the compounded issues that racism always creates in this country, it would mean a lot,\u201d Hampton says.<\/p>\n
An apology from Kelly could also allow the convicted R&B singer to begin a healing process after revelations of his own sexual abuse as a child, according to Hampton. \u201cIt would mean so much, as R. Kelly, as his attorney invoked at the sentencing, that he himself was a victim. I believe that. We put that in the documentary. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a minor fact. We know that not all abused people grow up to be abusers, but almost all people that abused were abused,\u201d Hampton says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have meant the world. I\u2019m sure he needs to have that moment of restorative justice in his family, and had he offered that, it would have meant a way forward for people locked in cycles of sexual abuse. It would been enormous for a movement that is about gender violence, if he had owned the harm,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Hampton believes Kelly, despite his animated protestations during an infamous CBS interview with Gayle King, is capable of owning up to the harm he did to those who survived his sexual abuse. \u201cR. Kelly employed a lot of strategy. He had women write false confessions. He had a whole operation that indicated that he was very aware that, not only what he was doing was wrong, but that he was committing crimes,\u201d the veteran producer says.<\/p>\n
Kelly still faces child pornography and obstruction-of-justice charges in Chicago, where a trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 15. Hampton sees the upcoming Chicago trial, if it goes ahead in the absence of a plea agreement, possibly encompassing more of the racketeering behind Kelly\u2019s sex trafficking, and that his network of co-conspirators may be drawn out of the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that didn\u2019t happen in the Brooklyn court was that we never really did see people who enabled and made this a real operation of predation,\u201d she says. We didn\u2019t get to see his system builders in court. They didn\u2019t really face any charges. It would be something like justice to see people who made this a real operation have to stand for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also sounds torn on the issue of whether streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music should take Kelly\u2019s music off of their platforms. Instead, she settled on separating abusive artists from their art.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many artists who are guilty of so much abuse\u2026 I\u2019m not necessarily someone who throws away the art,\u201d Hampton reasons. She points out that she continues to visit the Picasso Museum in Antibes, France, even though the legendary Spanish artist \u201crearranged the psyche and the lives and abused women, as a matter of his daily practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hampton also continues to listen to the music of Miles Davis, even though he admitted in his autobiography to abusing people he knew. She added her backing for the #MuteRKelly movement that aimed to end financial support for the R&B singer\u2019s career, including boycotting his concerts, given the significant financial proceeds that enabled Kelly to fund his predation.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Hampton says Kelly\u2019s earnings from his music on streaming platforms has been minor, and she believes Spotify making it easier to mute R. Kelly with a \u201cdon\u2019t play this artist\u201d button proved ineffective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never truly got rid of him,\u201d she says. \u201cThey just took him off their mix.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n