Lady Gaga removes track featuring R. Kelly from Apple Music and iTunes amid sexual assault allegations

In what appears to be a response to a host of sexual assault allegations against hip-hop star R. Kelly, Lady Gaga this week pulled a collaborative track with the artist from Apple's content distribution services.

As noted by Engadget on Thursday, Lady Gaga's "Do What U Want (With My Body)," from the album Artpop, is no longer available for streaming on Apple Music, nor can the song be purchased from iTunes.

Interestingly, the album itself is still live on both services with track seven — "Do What U Want" — conspicuously absent. The change suggests Gaga was able to retroactively remove a single song from a currently available album, an uncommon occurrence in the digital music business. Typically, music labels or artists pull entire albums when external issues arise.

The pop star seemingly addressed the takedown on Twitter yesterday, saying she planned to remove the song from iTunes and "other streaming platforms." Gaga cited what has become a laundry list of sexual assault and abuse allegations facing Kelly as an impetus for pulling "Do What U Want" from Apple's catalog. Kelly has consistently denied those allegations.

"I intend to remove this song off of iTunes and other streaming platforms and will not be working with him again," she said. "I'm sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner."

The post suggests "Do What U Want" was styled as a commentary on sexual assault.

"As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life, my intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I still hand't processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life," she said.

Gaga has partnered with Apple in the past, including a headline performance at the iTunes Festival in 2013.

23 Comments

Atomic Biotic 3 comments · 5 Years

About 5 years ago

What’s wrong with those artists lol.

genovelle 1481 comments · 16 Years

When I saw them perform this song live on TV it seemed very awkward and inappropriate.

Adult_Male 4 comments · 5 Years

Entire thing is rather silly and seems disingenuous on her part. More "me too" bandwagon. We all need to have an adult talk to decide what is actually sexual harassment and sexual assault.

mac_dog 1083 comments · 16 Years

Adult_Male said:

Entire thing is rather silly and seems disingenuous on her part. More "me too" bandwagon. We all need to have an adult talk to decide what is actually sexual harassment and sexual assault.

It’s not silly. And I have to wonder where you’ve been for the past 20 (or more) years. It’s been talked about. Guidelines have been set at companies. The only things that need to be takes about is why is this still happening? Why do parents (seemingly) refuse to teach their children about personal boundaries? I do know this behavior has been considered normal by the patriarchy and reinforced by all the male-centric institutions, organizations, private clubs. Men feign outrage if it happens to their wives or daughters, bcoz they are afraid of being kicked out of the pack of men or their fraternity.

The most important thing that needs to be discussed is the issue of race around sexual assault & rape. Yes, you all know what I’m talking about. Black men get the maximum penalty under the law while white males—specifically from the upper class just get a slap on the wrist. If they do get prison time, it’s at a country club.

Thankfully, things are changing.

tylersdad 310 comments · 13 Years

mac_dog said:

Adult_Male said:

Entire thing is rather silly and seems disingenuous on her part. More "me too" bandwagon. We all need to have an adult talk to decide what is actually sexual harassment and sexual assault.

It’s not silly. And I have to wonder where you’ve been for the past 20 (or more) years. It’s been talked about. Guidelines have been set at companies. The only things that need to be takes about is why is this still happening? Why do parents (seemingly) refuse to teach their children about personal boundaries? I do know this behavior has been considered normal by the patriarchy and reinforced by all the male-centric institutions, organizations, private clubs. Men feign outrage if it happens to their wives or daughters, bcoz they are afraid of being kicked out of the pack of men or their fraternity.

The most important thing that needs to be discussed is the issue of race around sexual assault & rape. Yes, you all know what I’m talking about. Black men get the maximum penalty under the law while white males—specifically from the upper class just get a slap on the wrist. If they do get prison time, it’s at a country club.

Thankfully, things are changing.

Rape has nothing to do with understanding personal boundaries. Rape is all about power. It is perpetuated by men and women who are sick, not men and women who weren’t taught boundaries.