Kendrick Lamar has been criticised for threatening to pull his music from Spotify after it pulled its playlist support from the likes of R. Kelly and XXXTentacion…both accused of assaulting women and girls.
Full story below…
Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he’s doin’ all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
The lyrics above come from the track ‘Brown Sugar’ written and recorded by The Rolling Stones. In it, the band declare their attraction to an enslaved Ghanaian girl sold to a sadistic slave master in New Orleans.
Quite interestingly, the iconic band hasn’t seen its jams face fire from Spotify’s hate content policy which has rightfully penalised Kelly and XXXTentacion for their alleged actions.
For this reason, Lamar has now threatened to lift his jams from the platform until it penalises all artists fairly.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Compton MC reportedly placed a personal phone call to Spotify Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek and head of artist relations Troy Carter to express his frustrations with the policy, and even threatened to pull his own music from the service if things didn’t change.
Kendrick has now come under fire for this action as some feel it does more to slam Spotify than celebrate it for taking a stand against violence.
This headline is completely misleading. The music industry, Kendrick Lamar included, did not agree with the policy because it was dubious and inconsistent. Neither did a lot of Spotify employees internally, so they went back on it. Kendrick wasn’t backing XXXtensioncord. https://t.co/I3lI6AWVR5
— Hussell Westbrick (@clark__kent0) May 25, 2018
Kendrick Lamar is threatening to pull of his music from Spotify supporting the Abuser XXXTENTATION, While Popgirls (especially Taylor) are getting Dragged for trying to help smaller artists. Imagine if Katy or Taylor, Miley and Nicki had done the same move like Kendrick!? pic.twitter.com/u7sydQMggV
— George Witness? (@KatysLLover) May 27, 2018
i've never been particularly interested in kendrick lamar's music but now that he threatened to take it off spotify if they took down xxxtentacion's i'm anti everything he does. talk about abusing your power.
— sweet murphy (@nutriculum) May 27, 2018
Kendrick Lamar is 100% right about @Spotify starting their anti-abuse campaign with black ARTISTS they pull R Kelly's music but white rock starts like the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious who killed/abused his gif & Lostprophets Ian Watkins who literally RAPED A BABY is still available? pic.twitter.com/fJcKsTvuDy
— #Entertainer (@2open2day) May 27, 2018
Taylor Swift leaves Spotify to protect IP rights of artists… gets dragged in media.
Kendrick Lamar threatens to leave Spotify to support a man who abused a pregnant woman… gets droves of support. https://t.co/6aIFHQUHW2
— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) May 27, 2018
My respect for Kendrick Lamar has been going down the drain recently. First, the way he set up that fan. Then, his support of a man accused of domestic abuse (the policy is weird given whose music is on Spotify, but wrong guy to support in my mind).
— AND (@Frag_IDMA) May 26, 2018
Smh I swear those on Twitter are idiots. A representative of Kendrick already made it clear as Day why he may make a business move as that smh. And firstly Spotify is gonna hurt themselves in terms of customers. First and foremost say what you will about Kelly, but again where is he being charged? Did the authorities not go to his crib and find that he and those staying are there of consent and legal. Where’s the charges? Out of all the men that being ridiculed in the media why would Kelly be an exception?? Ya gotta do better. He call also HIT everyone with a defamation case too
Spotify either stops promoting ALL artists with allegations or none at all. You can’t pick and choose based on race and that is what is going on here. Evil never wins. R. Kelly’s streams have increased after they stopped promoting him. People are entitled to listen to whatever music they feel like. No one can dictate what people listen to or read.