Questlove addressed one claim that he refused to participate in Lifetime’s shocking docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly, which premiered Thursday detailing how the R&B singer abused several underage girls — a claim he’s long denied.
In a series of now-deleted tweets, the Roots drummer said that his reluctance to appear was not out of affection for or allegiance to R. Kelly, but a disdain for his music.
“I always thought Kels was trash. My reason for declining the RKelly docu that I support 10000000 percent is I didn’t wanna be in the ‘good times’ portion of the doc, like stanning for his ‘genius,'” he tweeted Thursday. “I was asked to talk about his genius. I do not nor have I EVER stanned for him.”
His statements were made after series executive-producer, dream hampton, named him as one of the artists, who declined to be interviewed for the series in an interview with Shadow and Act.
hampton told Shadow and Act that Questlove, who she referred to as his given name Ahmir Thompson, said, “I would do anything for you but I can’t do this.”
The author and producer also named Jay-Z, Lil Kim, Erykah Badu, Dave Chappelle and Mary J. Blige as among those who did not want to be involved in the Lifetime docuseries.
“Just wanna make that abundantly clear in a non ‘he doth protest too much’ way. That [dream hampton] quote makes it look like I’m protecting him,” Questlove continued. “I’m thinking ‘damn I don’t wanna be the one guy I always am in documentaries fawning over someone I detest.’ So make ZERO mistake on my positioning.”
Still, hampton responded to Questlove’s now-deleted tweets, writing: “I didn’t ask you about his ‘Genius.’ I asked you to come on camera and say the same thing you said on Twitter. I told you I need Black male allies.”
Surviving R. Kelly will continue Friday and Saturday on Lifetime.