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Monica On R. Kelly: 'He Has To Pay The Price For All That He's Done'

The singer also reflected on her own experiences with men during her teenage years.

Monica is someone who knew R. Kelly well over the years, particularly early on in her musical career.

The singer recently appeared on Sirius XM’s “The Clay Cane Show” and was asked about Kelly and the fallout over his sexual assault charges. Monica said, “Anything you do, you have to be held accountable, doesn’t matter if it’s now or later. It doesn’t take away the fact that he shaped and molded a lot of who we listen to now, but he has to pay the price for all that he’s done. There’s no way around it, it’s just the way – this atmosphere – whatever you put out in the atmosphere is coming back in 20 minutes or 20 years.”

Monica also described her own experiences of being a young girl in the music industry and the types of advances she received from older men.

“I was a 13-year-old girl that full-grown men were always after. Thank God for my ability to be so outspoken because I didn’t play the radio, but not every young girl is equipped with that. Not every young girl is able to understand that a person’s celebrity should not allow them to tell you what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to go. Whatever comes of it, that is what was written for him.”

Monica is currently on tour and is working on her forthcoming album Chapter 38. Her new single “Commitment” recently hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Songs airplay chart. Listen to the segment of Monica talking R. Kelly on “The Clay Cane Show” below.

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