Kanye West is continuing his wild social media antics by calling for the release of convicted child sex offender, R. Kelly to be released from prison.
On X, West reposted a viral clip of the disgraced R&B legend singing happy birthday to a fan over the phone from prison.
As well as reposting the clip, West simply wrote: “FREE R KELLY.”
It’s not the first time West has shouted out his “To The World” collaborator either.
FREE R KELLY https://t.co/AyaV1woXrJ
— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2025
On Vultures track “Carnival”, which went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, West rapped: “Anybody pissed off, gotta make ’em drink the urine / Now I’m Ye-Kelly, bitch, now, I’m Bill Cosby, bitch / Now, I’m Puff Daddy rich, that’s #MeToo me rich.”
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Shortly afterwards, West was seen playing Kelly’s music during a private DJ set.
In the past, Ye has been accused of defending Kelly, as well as Michael Jackson who had also battled accusations of child sex abuse before his death.
“Everybody, they want the art from the artist, but anytime they do anything erratic, they just gonna pull up full documentaries on ’em. And then they gonna come with the Michael [Jackson] documentary,” he said during a Sunday Service performance in 2019.
“We can enjoy all their music all we want. I thought I wasn’t going to go there today but uh … If we gon’ tear down artists, let’s go ahead and take [Leonardo] da Vinci out the Louvre while we at it. Let’s take down all the art.”
Kanye was quickly defended by his then-wife Kim Kardashian who said: “I’m going to nip this in the bud right now. Kanye was speaking about his own experience of everyone quick to say they are cancelling him because of differences in opinion & not being perfect. The analogies were in context to his own experiences, not defending anyone else.”
She added: “I want to make it very clear, he is not condoning anyone’s actions or unacceptable disgusting behavior. My husband’s words are being taken out of context due to timing.”
West has also defended other alleged sex criminals such as Diddy and Andrew Tate while he himself has been accused of sexual assault.
