At this point many people have watched LIFE Times ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ and the internet and social media are trending #RKelly and #SurvivingRKelly.
Robert Kelly aka R. Kelly self proclaimed himself as the ‘Pied Piper of R&B’.
For those who don’t know the story of the Pied Piper or haven’t heard it in a long while, here you go: It’s the year 1284, and the German town of Hamelin is dealing with a terrible rat problem. Enter the piper. “Pied” was an old-fashioned way of saying he was dressed in colorful scraps of cloth, and “piper” just referred to his musical instrument of choice. He agrees to rid the town of rats in exchange for a large fee, and he does so by playing his pipe until the rodents come out to follow him. Then he leads them away and returns to collect his money — but the town decides not to pay. So he takes out his pipe and begins to play again, and this time, it’s the children that begin to dance and follow him. He leads them to a crack in a mountain, which swallows them up forever.
In an interview with GQ Magazine, R. Kelly states, “I started calling myself the Pied Piper,” he explains, “when I started using the flute sound in my music.” He starts listing songs in which he used it. (He mentions “Fiesta” and “Snake”; I mention “Step in the Name of Love,” the first of his own songs where he actually refers to himself by this name.) “I was the Pied Piper. You know, blew a flute. I started calling myself the Pied Piper because of the flute.”
Collins Dictionary defines Pied Piper as a leader whom people willingly follow, often, specif., one who leads others into danger or trouble by means of elaborate, false promises.
Since the airing of “Surviving R. Kelly” on the Lifetime network Thursday, Jan. 3, R. Kelly‘s music sales have increased on the Spotify platform, The Blast reports.
A Spotify rep confirmed the artist’s music has seen a 16 percent jump after the airing of part one of “Surviving R. Kelly.” The six-part documentary features Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly, as well as Jerhonda Pace, Kitti Jones, Asante McGee, Lisa Van Allen, singer Sparkle and many more.
While details of which song or album on Spotify saw an increase was not released, the rise comes in the aftermath of the Kelly and Spotify imbroglio in May 2018.
Spotify had announced they were going to remove the “Bump and Grind” singer’s music from their platform’s promoted playlists after previous accusations against Kelly. The backlash was so ferocious that Spotify was forced to reverse its decision.
Kelly reportedly boasts approximately 5.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has more than 1.7 million subscribers, according to Refinery29.com. These numbers reveal that millions of listeners have chosen to either ignore Kelly’s sexual abuse allegations or simply do not believe the compelling testimonies from a legion of former alleged victims.