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Erykah Badu ‘Defends’ R. Kelly & Says She Sees ‘All Points Of View’ In Concert & Fans Slam Her

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Erykah Badu said a few encouraging words about R. Kelly and the women accusing him of alleged sexual and domestic assault during her concert in Chicago on Jan. 19, and some bothered followers tweeted their concerns.

Erykah Badu, 47, put on quite the performance at her concert in Chicago on Jan. 19, but she got major attention when she stopped to give a speech about R. Kelly, 52, in the middle of the show. The talented singer talked about the current controversy surrounding the R&B artist and the docu-series, Surviving R. Kelly, in which multiple women accused him of years of alleged sexual and domestic assault, but instead of bashing the man in question, Erykah encouraged him to “see the light”.

“I’m putting up a prayer right now for R.,” she said on stage in front of her fans. “I hope he sees the light of day if he’s done all those things that we’ve seen on TV and heard those ladies talk about. I hope he sees the light of day and comes forward.” Erykah then went on to talk about what would happen if one of the people who survived alleged abuse by R. Kelly grew up to become an abuser themselves. “Would we crucify them? How do we do this?” she asked.

Although Erykah’s speech was clearly meant to try and make a negative situation more positive, many Twitter followers felt like she was defending R. Kelly’s actions and expressed disapproval over her words. “lord knows i wanted nothing more than to see erykah badu the night before my birthday but after hearing about her act a fool over r.kelly shows me that wasn’t the energy i needed,” one follower tweeted. “Erykah Badu put on a great show last night, but she really disappointed me with her comments on R. Kelly,” another wrote.

“Erykah Badu needs to look deep into herself and ask if R.Kelly is really my brother, will I leave my baby girls alone with him overnight? She’s no friend to black women,” a different follower tweeted. “I mean Erykah Badu has a daughter that falls in R Kelly age preference range. Wonder if the energy would still be the same if her daughter was getting R Kelly alone time,” another harsh tweet read.

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This isn’t the first time Erykah received backlash over her outspoken comments. She made headlines at the Soul Train Music Awards back in Nov. 2015, when she dissed rapper Iggy Azalea by saying her music “was definitely not rap” in her monologue.