Christina Aguilera, shot by Zoey Grossman for Paper Magazine.

Christina, Time's Up For R. Kelly & More

By Jasmine Williams

Early noughties preteens, rejoice - Xtina is back! Yesterday, the Stripped singer announced the release date and tracklist of her upcoming album, Liberation. While the LP won’t come out until June 15th, the first official single just dropped yesterday with a clip that features the new, natural, Christina. Produced by Kanye, Aguilera’s “Accelerate” is the only positive thing we’ve heard from West in weeks!

Despite the fact that R. Kelly has been accused of many disturbing acts of sexual assault, pedophilia, and abuse, the music industry has been disturbingly slow to address the Trapped In The Closet artist's misconduct. That may finally be changing - this week a grass-roots campaign that has steadily been working to create a widespread of boycott of R. Kelly gained additional traction with the help of some Hollywood heavyweights.

The #MuteRKelly campaign was started last July by Oronike Odeleye, an Atlanta Arts Administrator. Since the movement's start, ten R.Kelly concerts have been cancelled. On Monday, women of color members of the Time's Up movement put their considerable influence behind #MuteRKelly when they penned an open letter asking organizations (including Spotify and Apple) to boycott R. Kelly. He is currently represented by RCA Records, a division of Sony.

Read the full letter here and find out how you can help #MuteRKelly here.

Director Ava Duvernay expressed her support for Time's Up letter to boycott R. Kelly.

That New New

Princess Nokia dropped a new video yesterday. “For The Night” comes from her recent mixtape, A Girl Cried Red. Florence + The Machine announced that their highly anticipated followup to 2011’s Ceremonials will drop on June 29th. They just released “Hunger,” the second single off of the album. Dirty Projectors released "Break-Thru" a new video off of their upcoming album. Lamp Lit Prose is out July 13th and the band embarks on a massive support tour this summer. My Bloody Valentine, Angel Olsen, Raphael Saadiq, Death Cab for Cutie, Father John Misty, and Audiofemme favorite, Wax Idols, will also hit the road soon.

End Notes

NPR got the lowdown on the most random collaboration in recent memory. Hear Sting & Shaggy talk about their recent reggae-influenced album, 44/876, here.
BRIC has announced the lineup for their free concert series, Celebrate Brooklyn!
Rapper Meek Mill, who was freed from prison only last month, spoke openly about his opioid addiction and called for criminal justice reform at a press conference in Philly this week.

NEWS ROUNDUPChristina Aguilera Returns, Time's Up for R. Kelly and More