Behind the Music: Uncovering Moral Dilemmas in Celebrity Culture

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Hosted by: The Global Zoe, Eric Biddines & Drego Mill

Can you truly appreciate music if you know the person behind it has had controversies? That's the tough question we're tackling today, taking a deep dive into the music world's biggest conundrums in light of famous cases like R. Kelly and Michael Jackson. We explore the moral crossroads of supporting such artists and the implications it might have. Alongside this critical examination, we also consider the complex tapestry of their personal experiences, and grapple with the difficult task of separating the art from the artist. 

Switching gears, we also delve into the murky waters of age and relationships within the celebrity sphere, using the case of Marcus Houston's relationship with a significantly younger woman as our lens. Consent, the role of parents, and the ethical boundaries of such relationships are all under our microscope. Furthermore, we shine a spotlight on allegations against Lizzo and her dancers, questioning the ethical lines when performance and power dynamics intertwine. Join us as we navigate these intricate topics, one controversial celebrity at a time. Prepare for a no-holds-barred exploration of the intersection between personal actions and public personas.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So are we able to separate a person's personal
actions from the music?
You gotta ask.
Sorry boy, I'm asking you, I'masking you, that's a trio y'all.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
That's a tough one because I'll be looking at, like
our Kelly, I look at that.
That was the first example, tome at least.
Like are we, are you gonnastill support this music Through
all of this?
Like that was the first exampleand people always say there's
two different people likewhatever he did there, but
musically he was a genius.
So some people feel like thatwas okay because they had

(00:36):
nothing to do with the music.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, I don't.
I don't know Robert, but I knowour Kelly right.
I listen to our Kelly I don'tknow Robert, but yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It bought.
I mean, I guess it depends onwhat you do, right, you for me.
But when you talk about younggirls, I don't got no daughters.
Yeah but that does rub me adifferent way as a grown-ass man
.
Whether you're manipulating,how have you choose to do it?
I don't that.
I don't associate with those.
I feel like there's there'ssome things you don't touch.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
All right, eric, so how'd you feel about the Michael
Jackson situation?
Let's start with him first,because that's that.
That was Ron, our era, ofcourse, but we were younger then
.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
But that made.
That made me uncomfortable, butI wasn't.
I wasn't old enough to knowthat you had, like, a choice of
judging, a Judging music basedon what a person was personally
doing, like when that happened.
It wasn't like social media andthings like that.

(01:32):
You didn't know a lot aboutartists.
No you just knew they music.
Now you see, because so much isput out there, we know a lot
about artists.
Sometimes you, you ain't nevereven see your favorite artists,
but I have concert on a poster.
If you, if you did get a poster, you, that was something you
cherish.
Now we see so much, we able tojudge them.

(01:55):
So I didn't, I didn't know howto judge any Celebrities
allegations, but Michael Jacksonwas never found guilty he was
accused of.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
He was and he was only guilty of, like in here, he
did little boys did sleep onhis bed, right, right, but he
ain't never According to thehorse like the case, right, he'd
never touched them or didanything wrong, illegal, that he
shouldn't be doing.
But does it look bad for agrown-ass man To have little

(02:26):
boys in his bed?
Absolutely.
But we're talking about MichaelJackson, who was robbed of a at
the same time, who didn'treally have the childhood as
Right, who he just felt he wasbeing innocent, who was a star
so young.
Can I understand that mentalitysometimes, I guess, sometimes I
was like, well, if you, I like,it can kind of make sense.

(02:47):
Like you know, I'm saying I'mlike, I can see that because he
was, he was always like a littlebig kid.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, he was different.
Like I could.
I can Looking now if I had toguess and I don't like to take,
I don't even Today.
I don't like to have opinionson things I don't really know
about, but just to voice myopinion on it.
I don't think he did it,because I seen it interview
where they asked them All right,would you still invite kids

(03:12):
over to your house?
And he said absolutely.
Like so if you was, if anybodyguilty, gonna stay away from it.
Anybody, even even if you'renot guilty, you just insecure or
you trying to play it safe, yougonna stay away from it.
The fact that you he saidabsolutely yeah, mean that he

(03:33):
stood on a much stronger levelof integrity to where the public
opinion didn't even matter whathe knew was true.
So when you move, when you movethat way Against popular
opinion, against what thelawyers might it advise, against
the consequences, what you'regonna lose, then I'm like, oh,

(03:57):
you have a different set ofmorals to where you living in
your truth.
And so I was like, no, I don'tthink he did it.
He'll he on a different type ofspectrum.
Yeah, where I would, I couldsee him feeling more comfortable
around around youth.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So, to answer your question, um, I haven't bumped
our Kelly since.
Not having gone through ourKelly since the situation, I'll
be honest man, it's hard to notbump him.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
You know I'm saying I and when I listen to my music,
I listen to it on shuffle and Igot like three, about four
thousand songs on my phone andif he comes on I don't cut it
off around people, I don't play.
Mr Kelly, you know I don't playour killer on people, but me
alone if I'm home cleaningwhatever like that.
Yes, I will listen to him, I doI do?

Speaker 1 (04:53):
I still play our Kelly, you know I, because we
have to take responsibility.
If you listen to some of hissongs, he was, he was crying out
to us.
There's a, there's a fight in abattle that Artists, if you
paying attention, you you seethe transitions they going

(05:15):
through.
He had this hyper sexualizedUpringing and then he also had
his Religious background, hisfaith in God.
You see, these these ups anddowns that you'll oscillate
Throughout the music industry.
A lot of Michael Jackson wentthrough the same thing.
He was, he was in thriller, hewas a zombie.

(05:37):
Then he went to save in theworld and you look at Tupac and
his variations.
So the people, we, we ignorewhen these artists are Crying
out to us and we not takingresponsibility of our
Contribution to where to where.
That causes artists to evenGive us the music and portray

(06:03):
the image that we want to seefrom them.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Can.
Can I say something real quickside or a quick sidebar?
It's the reason why I still dolisten to him.
It's his Whenever a song comeout that you guys like Don't.
Don't it remind you of thattime when?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
it came out, yeah, like a session moment.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Like I have Rememberable moments, what I was
doing when that song came out,like I know exactly at pinpoint
when I was and what I done tothe song, so was.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
If your daughter was one of them victims, would you
be listening to it?

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Man listen.
Okay.
So we must just ask me the samequestion, um, I think I would
say if I had a daughter,probably different.
But I don't, um, because she'sbeen in some situations like
that.
She don't, she don't fuck withhim.
So I understand it hit me hardbecause she's my sister when she

(06:57):
said that.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's tough.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
It's tough.
Do you know how normal that was?

Speaker 3 (07:05):
so if I tell you how my kid With his music plan, I
Know, I guess I'm here condoneit.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
We, we, we moved.
We moved forward to where we,we evolved to where we no longer
allowed those activities.
But what he was doing there was, and From how it played out,
because many women still stayedwith him into their adult years.

(07:39):
Going back, that's how it wasdone.
Fathers was given their 13 yearold daughters away.
You, if you go back far enough,and not even too far let's just
go to colonial horse, horse andbuggy the, a 13 year old girl,
was at the level of maturity asa 35 year old woman today.

(08:02):
So the how you would you waspairing people based on
Availability for one, thestaggering of the age
differences and still having toreproduce.
So as a civilizationill Primar,we just now getting away from
it.
We have enough options to whereyou can be involved with

(08:27):
someone of a closer age.
But there's details within theR Kelly situation where parents
knew what was going on.
There was stuff that was justkept a secret, that it was
supposed to be none of ourbusiness, and then we decided
much, much later, people decidedthat we no longer comfortable

(08:47):
with it and now we want to throwthis man under the bus, knowing
that how we all as just aspecies, how we came about, and
you would see a 14-year-old girlwith a 30-year-old man.

(09:08):
That was very, very normal inour recent past.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
But then the laws have checked.
I mean, granted, I couldunderstand back in the day how I
was, but there's so many thingsthat are in place now.
Yeah, it bothers me.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
So Marcus Houston and the girl he with, how do you?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
feel about that.
I don't have all thestatistical.
Isn't she 20 or something likethat?
I don't know.
I've seen a post, but I don'treally know exactly his story.
To be honest with you, I don'tknow the whole story 100%.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
So if I had a daughter, let's say she's 16.
The values that I might wantfor my daughter and this may
sound a little creepy, but thevalues that I might want for my
daughter may not be in a guythat's her age.
So I would hope.

(10:03):
But if you're raising yourdaughter a certain way, if you
had that luxury and you havesome very, very high standards,
what you and if you're lookingat the options, it might be a O
to do.
Like I look at Marcus Houston.
I'm like he appeared to be apretty solid and stand up dude.

(10:27):
He's heavy in his faith.
He would he wear church clothesevery weekend.
It looked like.
I'm like I could see a fatherbeing OK with his 20-year-old
daughter being with MarcusHouston.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
But you say 28,.
I mean I think after 18, it'skind of like you grown and if
that's what you do, if theperson 25, 30, if they 40, I
feel like, yeah, that's on you.
I kind of feel like you canmake mistakes, you can test it
out, but anything under 18 iswhy I just I still don't think
you know it all.

(11:05):
Like you, I struggle with that,like I get why Boosie said what
he said to a little bit aboutyou know, like I get, I just
think 18 is that number, you hit18.
And I want you to find somebodymature, responsible, got a good
head on their shoulders anddoing the right thing.
But below 18, I guess I juststruggle with that and OK, to
that point too.

(11:25):
So maybe if that's what he wasdoing, let's say that was
arranged and they were cool withit.
I guess that's where those NDAcome into play, I'm assuming,
but it looks like.
Look at Lizzo right now.
Now she's going through thesame thing with her dancers,
right, they were forced to dotasks, whether it's sexual,

(11:47):
nonsexual things that weren'tknown, whether the banana inside
the vagina thing eat a bananaoutside of a vagina.
I heard some crazy things andnow six more people Just came
out and saying, yes, theyexperienced the same thing.
They'll be manipulated to dothings that they didn't want to

(12:07):
do because they have walked away.
Yeah, absolutely, but we'retalking about grown folks though
.