Lady Gaga appears to be releasing new physical editions of her third studio album ‘Artpop’, six years after its release – but without ‘Do What U Want (With My Body)’, the song featuring R. Kelly.
Over the weekend, fans of the pop star unearthed pre-order listings for CD and vinyl versions of the album on retailer HMV’s website, sharing their discoveries on the forum Gaga Daily. Both versions of ‘Artpop’ leave ‘Do What U Want’ off the tracklist, and are due out November 11, a little over six years after the record’s release date of November 6, 2013.
‘Do What U Want’ is already unavailable from Gaga’s pages on various streaming services. Earlier this year, the pop star had scrubbed the song from platforms and issued a statement in support of sexual assault victims, after the documentary series Surviving R. Kelly increased media scrutiny on the R&B singer and stoked more support for the #MuteRKelly campaign. The six-part Lifetime series featured interviews and testimonials from numerous women who claimed they had been coerced and sexually assaulted by Kelly.
“What I am hearing about the allegations against R. Kelly is absolutely horrifying and indefensible,” Gaga wrote in her statement issued January 10. “As a victim of sexual assault myself, I made both the song and video at a dark time in my life. My intention was to create something extremely defiant and provocative because I was angry and still hadn’t processed the trauma that had occurred in my own life.”
Kelly was arrested in July on 13 federal sex trafficking charges, and is currently in jail awaiting trial. He was recently denied bail after his lawyer filed a motion citing his “severely restricted” visits that prevented two “lady friends” from seeing him at the same time, and health concerns like anxiety and an untreated hernia.
The date for Kelly’s trial in Chicago has been tentatively set for April 27, 2020.