BY ELIJAH C. WATSON • JANUARY 29 2019

Erykah Badu has addressed the backlash she faced last week after people who attended her show in Chicago claimed that she seemed to be supporting R. Kelly.

READ: Erykah Badu Says She was Never Asked To Participate In ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Docuseries

“I dunno how everybody else feel about it, but I’m putting up a prayer right now for R,” she said during the performance. “I hope he sees the light of day if he[‘s] done all those things that we’ve seen on TV and heard those ladies talk about. I hope he sees the light of day and comes forward. What y’all say, fuck him? That’s not love. That’s not unconditional love.”

Others claimed that Badu had said the following during the set: “What if one of the people who was assaulted by R Kelly becomes an offender? we gonna crucify them too?”

Now, speaking with Essence, Badu offered an updated response on the backlash, saying that “anything that I express is always a message of unconditional love. I would never ask anyone to feel the way I feel or see the way I see, but I also think I have the right to express the way I feel.”

Badu then spoke on social media and the part it played in the backlash she faced.

“We don’t have a lot of respect for the individual — not on social media. And maybe social media is not the place to discuss certain things. I learned that too,” she said. “I’m used to being misunderstood but I don’t mind being…the problem that may lead to the solution at some point.”

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