Thanksgiving and Chirstmas are the most popular holidays, where people are supposed to give thanks for the many blessings that they received as well as spread love and joy to others, but it seemed that R&B Singer/songwriter R. Kelly, attempted to spread holiday blues to fans by having singer/songwriter Ne-Yo kicked off his "Double Up" tour last week, shocking and upseting many including the singer who was doing his part to make the tour a success.
"I don't understand their actions because I was rehearsing, doing media, promoting the tour, and performing" he said through his spokesperson. "In my opinion, I was doing everything possible the make the tour a success.
The bump and grind singer's label and spokesperson denied that the lendary singer, who's facing charges for child pornography, had anything to do with the Arkansa born and Las Vegas raised songwriter, claiming the issue had to do with a contract dispute. "Ne-Yo's departure from the 'Double Up' tour was the result of contractial issues between him and the promoter." Kelly's spokesperson said. "R. Kelly had nothing to do with it."
Ne-Yo and his people belive the real reason he was given his walking papers was because he was getting excellent reviews from press and fans. More then the legend who in additon to penning hits for The Winans, Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers, Celine Dion, B2K and Ginuwine, has been known to be one of many performers to be difficult to work with, and unfortantely Ne-Yo had to experience R.'s diva/devo egomanic attitude. In an interview with Big Tigger on WPCG, the singer who's penned hits for Mario, Beyonce, Rhianna, Ruben Studdard and Mary J. Blige said that when the tour reached Columbus Georgia, Mr. Bump And Grind had all of the arena's seven dressing rooms to himself, forcing Ne-Yo's people to take action. "Took all seven dressing rooms for himself. I could not get one dressing room. I had to get my people to fight to get me and my dancers a damn dressing room" he told the former "Rap City" host. "I'm supposed to have a damn dressing room."
Ne-Yo also spoke about how he was getting more exceelent reviews from press and how he's gonna put on a good show for the fans who paid money to expect an excellent show.
I'm gonna get on stage and give my two hundred percent because I know damn well if I spent my money to see somebody, I want you to give me my money's worth. I'm gonna give you your money's worth."
This isn't the first time Robers (Kelly's first name) had problems with other performers he's toured with. In 2004, he and Jay-Z teamed up to promote their second joint album, which was something fans have been warting to see, but it didn't happened due to Kelly's arrest for child pornography shorlty after the release of their high anticipated release "The Best of Both Worlds." The two decided to hit the road, but the tour was doged with problems due to Kelly's insecurities, jealousy of Jigga getting more love and positive feedback andlateness, but it was the night they performed at Madison Square Garden when the potatoes started to burn. Kelly was attacked with pepper spray by one of the rapper's friend who was charged with disordely conduct and sentenced to community service while a suit Kelly filed against them is being closed to being settled. While Jigga's friend finally admitted to macing the singer, Jigga said in an interview that Kelly they had to miss a concert date in Ohio because he had to wait over two hours for Kelly to come to the tour bus. His reason for being late was because he was changing the order of his show.
This isn't the first time that we've heard stories about performers having clashes and conflicts on tour with each other. Most of the time it seems that the opening acts gets most of the flack, for setting the pace of the main attraction.
In her autobiography "Between Each Line of Pain & Glory," Gladys Knight wrote about how she and her group The Pips were kicked off a tour they were co headlining with The Supremes. The group was getting standing ovations everynight, and it seemed that Diana Ross didn't like that, so the next day, Knight was told that Motown wanted them back in Detroit asap, and when they returned to Motown, Berry Gordy didn't hide the truth either. "I hear you was giving my act a hard time" he told Knight.
Another group that was the victim of hating was the rock group KISS who was also learned that being too seasoned has it's ups and downs. When the group was starting out, they was asked to perform at a club, and one their first night, they crowd wanted an encore, so they proceded to play, but while they were playing, they owner of the club shut off the electricity and told them if they continued to perform any encores, the power would be shut off. Each night they performed and despite the fans wanting more, they power went off, until their road manager took actions into his hands by locking the manager in a trunk while the group performed.
Many are probably wondering why does the headliners behave the way they do?
To keep their popularity with the fans. Most of them think that they're gonna stay on top forever, and when someone new and fresh comes out and (unintentionally) steals their shine and their fan base, they become insecure, and threatned, so they do everything possible to make sure they don't lose any popularity, but their behavior can affect have many negative affects on their career. Though Knight & The Pips were kicked off the tour, they wound up having Motown's biggest selling single that year with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and KISS wound up selling out stadiums. In the case with R. Kelly, he's has fear of losing fans to Ne-Yo because he's young, talented, sexy, professional and down to earth. Kelly on the other hand is talented and a legend, but he's the one who's acting more of a spoiled child, and you would think that since he's been in the game since 1991, that he would set more of a example. I saw a clip of his performance, and he appeared to be lip-synching his hook on Nick Cannon's hit "Gigaloo" as well as bragging about how he wrote alot of hit songs as a way of responding to many who criticized him for performing close to 3 hours.
He also has a reputation of showing up to his concerts late. A friend of mine from Detroit went to see him perform in 2003, and the crowd waited over two and a half hours for him to appear on stage, and when he did arrive, he only performed for twenty minutes and left! I heard that he went to the afterparty, then came to the areana. Hello but isn't the act supposed to attend the after party after they perform their gig?
Of course he deserves respect as a legend and Ne-Yo had acknowledge that, but Kelly on the other hand should be giving Ne-Yo the same ammont of respect, because Kelly didn't make it on his own. He had the help of Public Announcement (the group that he started out with), Natalie Cole, who gave them a break on her talent show, Barry Hankerson, Gladys Knight's ex-husband, and Aaliyah's uncle who managed his career, and the fans who brought his music despite knowning he has an fetish for young underage children. He married Aaliyah shortly after she released her debut album, and he's being charged with child pornography, which has yet went to trial, so what Kelly needs to do is start acting more professional, because many people are becoming quite upset with his behavior and the more he keeps acting like a diva/devo, there's he's gonna be seeing more declines in record and ticket sales.
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