Lady Gaga reportedly scrapped the music video for her R Kelly duet ‘Do What U Want’ out of fear that its subject matter was bordering on rape. The video – directed by controversial photographer Terry Richardson, who also helmed Miley Cyrus’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ video’ – was originally teased on Tumblr in December, but Gaga later claimed that due to “time constraints” and “those who have betrayed me”, the video had been scrapped.
However, the New York Post are now quoting a source who claims that, instead, the singer was worried that parts of the video which showed R Kelly playing a doctor while Gaga played his patient were reminiscent of rape scenes. According to the newspaper, in one scene of the canned video, Lady Gaga asks the R&B star, “Will I ever walk again?”, before he replies, “Yes, if you let me do whatever I want with your body.” He then reportedly goes on to tell her: “I’m putting you under, and when you wake up, you’re going to be pregnant.” Yeesh.
If the video had been released, it would have been unfortunate timing, as director Terry Richardson has since been accused of sexual misconduct by models he’s worked with in the past – claims which he has vehemently denied, including in a blog on The Huffington Post. In the end ‘Do What U Want’, the second official single from Gaga’s most recent album ‘ARTPOP’ went without a music video, but that didn’t stop it reaching the UK top ten singles chart when it was released last year.
The two stars performed their duet together live at the American Music Awards last year, in a performance that saw R Kelly playing the president, and Gaga acting as his secretary. She later performed it on ‘The Voice’, with all traces of R Kelly’s part in the song removed and replaced by a totally new verse sung by Christina Aguilera.
Hospital Rape and Sexual Predators: Inside Lady Gaga’s Terry Richardson Directed Music Video
