50 Cent has jumped to the defense of R. Kelly and XXXTentacion following the removal of their music from Spotify's curated playlists. The streaming site announced on Thursday that they have removed the musicians' tracks from all editorial or algorithmic playlists including Rap Caviar, Discover Weekly or New Music Friday following a hate content and hateful conduct policy. Their music is still available to stream on the platform.
50 Cent has some opinions on Spotify's decision and took to Twitter to express them. On Thursday he tweeted, "Spotify is wrong for what there doing to artist like R Kelly and xxxtentacion. There not even convicted of any thing."
Spotify's policy defines hate content as "content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability."
On Wednesday, 50 announced on Instagram that he will be leaving the platform and going back to Twitter because IG takes "shit down off my page without notifying me."
In response to Spotify's removal of R. Kelly's music from playlists, the company told Billboard, "We don’t censor content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, but we want our editorial decisions—what we choose to program—to reflect our values. When an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful, it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator."
R. Kelly has faced numerous accusations of sexual misconduct over the years including allegedly training underage girls as sex slaves and being the head of an "abusive cult." XXXTentacion has also been tied to a number of incidents including charges of aggravated battery against a pregnant woman, false imprisonment, domestic battery by strangulation, and witness-tampering.
