The notion of the musician behaving badly is nothing new to our society. We've seen artists addicted to drugs, those who abuse women and even those who've been accused of getting naked with little children. The public doesn't respond to every artist's poor choices in the same way: Some of them are able to pick right back up and keep going, while some artists are never invited into a music studio again.
The way the public responds to celebrity misbehavior is largely a function of the severity of the offense, the quality of the celeb's PR reps, the celeb's level of talent and the quality of all newly released music. When R. Kelly was accused of getting freaky with little girls, his words during his first interview with BET were very telling. During the interview, Kelly consistently repeated the words: "Just focus on my music, just focus on my music."
The motivation for Kelly's statement was simple: His team understood that if the public regained its fixation on his enormous talent, they would forget that he is also the man who has been accused of wanting to sleep with your child's classmates. The formula worked. After releasing a couple of jams that hit the airwaves hard, R. Kelly was right back on top without much of a hitch. Now, people will listen to his music all day long without wondering why there's a 13-year-old girl waiting for him backstage.
The criterion for celebrity forgiveness is once again up for reassessment after the recent tirade by Chris Brown at 'Good Morning America.' In what I personally believe to be a publicity stunt, Brown went bananas in his dressing room after being confronted by host Robin Roberts about the beating of singer Rihanna two years ago. The public seems to find Brown's antics amusing, similar to the way they reacted when Kanye West did the exact same thing right before his own album was released in 2009.
The bottom line is that when it comes to celebrities and athletes, almost any heinous act or crime is forgivable. Talent trumps integrity any day of the week, as the public seems to adore the phenomenal yet troubled superstar who needs his heroin in order to give a great performance. To some extent, it makes sense to detach personal judgments when evaluating the depth of one's talent, but the dangers of such simple-minded analysis can be problematic, especially for African Americans.
For the black community, many of our artists influence young people, especially in hip-hop. Kids dress, walk, talk and get tattooed in the same way as their favorite musician, for hip-hop and R&B permeate nearly every aspect of the black existence. If the artist promotes dysfunctional behavior, young people tend to follow suit.
The bottom line is that the only true crime any musical superstar can commit is to release a bad album. At that point, the punishments can be endless, for the public has little tolerance for mediocrity. But if you can sing, dance or act, the black community's insatiable appetite for greatness gives them an infinite tolerance for almost any indiscretion, no matter how heinous or vile it might be. R. Kelly, Chris Brown and even the late Michael Jackson are perfect cases in point, for decency is not a requirement to sell records.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please click here.