He also posted a video of the complete interview to Twitter, providing more context for his remarks. In it, he says, "Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake. At the time, it wasn’t even present in my mind that people could feel any type of way about his presence on a track of mine. Here’s the thing: I think for a long time I was only able to understand R. Kelly’s situation and presence in the world when it comes down to his trial and his accusations and his accusers as a victim. I don’t know if that’s because I’m from Chicago or ‘cause he made great music or ‘cause he is a black man."
"We’re programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression," he continued. "It’s just prevalent in all media, and when you see n----s getting beat up by the police...that’s like a scene you see...like slavery for a lot of people, they envision men in chains, but black women are exponentially [a] higher oppressed and violated group of people just in comparison to the whole world. Maybe I didn’t care because I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were black women. Usually, n----s that get in trouble for shit like this on their magnitude of celebrity, it’s light-skinned women or white women. That’s when it’s a big story. I’ve never really seen any pictures of R. Kelly’s accusers.”
Later on Twitter, he elaborated, adding, "Anyone mentioning that I have black women in my family is deliberately missing the point. Regardless of the proximity of beneficial BW in your life, or being black yourself, we are all capable of subconsciously discrediting black women and their stories because it's indoctrinated."
Lemieux also took to Twitter to defend Chance's statements, writing, "FYI, I conducted the interview with Chance in May. He spoke clearly and unequivocally in support of BW and the victims."
Check out the full video of Chance the Rapper's comments, as well as the tweets, below.
