Kelly and I have sometimes very untrue things written about us, so in a way this was a bond between us,” she told reporters who asked about the accusations against him. Kelly’s involvement fit this theme, Gaga explained back then, in a manner that’s stomach churning to read now. The lyrics of “Do What U Want” are about surrendering to physical domination, and at the time they most clearly referred to the demands of fame: “You don’t own my life but / Do what you want with my body,” was a taunt to the ogling tabloids. Gaga’s statement is an unusual one, though, as is the song she has to answer for. Chance the Rapper and Phoenix apologized for singing with him, Omarion said B2K would no longer perform songs recorded with him, and Future gave a strained nonanswer when asked if he’d work with Kelly again. While John Legend was the only high-profile musician to disavow Kelly in the documentary, pressure appears to be mounting on the R&B star’s former collaborators. Kelly, Lifetime’s six-part exposé about the girls and women Kelly has allegedly preyed on. The apology is a testament to Surviving R. Kelly and the cost of black protectionism “I’m sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner.” “What I am hearing about the allegations against R Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible,” she said in a lengthy Twitter note Thursday. Now Gaga has removed the song “Do What U Want” from iTunes and other streaming services and apologized for working with Kelly.
So went the leaked footage from the never-released music video for Gaga’s 2013 single “Do What U Want.” At the time of its production, a source who’d seen the footage-which was shot by the fashion photographer Terry Richardson, who, like Kelly, had been denying sexual-assault accusations against him for years- told Page Six, “It was literally an ad for rape.” Sedatives kick in, and Kelly and a crew of scantily clad nurses start gyrating on her sleeping body. Kelly reaches under her sheet and toward her groin, and Gaga moans.