Recently, when I read the news that Ke$ha leaked some abusive emails Dr Luke had sent her, I remembered the whole #FreeKesha movement, and my confusion/intrigue was re-aroused. Yesterday my cousin, Feyisola sent me some pictures regarding an anti-rape protest in Manchester so I decided to finally write up what I found out about Ke$ha's case.
At the grand age of 18 Ke$ha was encouraged by a man called Lukasz Gottwald (more commonly known as Dr Luke) to drop out of school and pursue a life in the fast lane (hmm).
Having received production and writing credits for hits such as "Since You've Been Gone", it's safe to say that this seemed like a super big deal to young Ke$ha at the time, and to be honest it was. However, because Dr Luke was so busy with Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway at the time Ke$ha signed with David Sonnerberg's DAS Communications instead. Eventually, according to both DAS and Ke$ha, Dr Luke managed to convince her, through intimidation (hmm), to leave DAS. DAS continued to help her out, however this ended badly when they took both Ke$ha and Dr Luke to court over unpaid commision fees. It was in this trial that Ke$ha claimed Dr Luke never assaulted or harassed or abused her in any way (hmm), something that would later bite her in the a**.
Fast Forward a bit to 2012, right after the Sandy Hook school shooting when Die Young was pulled from the charts; Ke$ha claimed that she was "forced" to sing that chorus, after expressing her concern over the lyrics "cos we're gonna die young", especially given her youthful fan-base. Shortly after this claim she tweeted apologising, saying 'forced' was too strong a word, she merely had reservations... hmmm once more.
The whole legal affair began in 2014, after Ke$ha was admitted to rehab for an eating disorder in January. After finally coming clean to the doctors about her abuse, Ke$ha filed a formal lawsuit against Dr Luke for battery and harassment and emotional abuse and sexual assault (which consisted of him forcing her to snort illicit substances and giving her date rape drugs under the guise of "sober pills") aaanndd gender violence. Dr Luke also took advantage of Ke$ha's career by threatening her, shattering her self-confidence, drawing up one-sided non profitable contracts and stifling her creative control; so she also sued him for violating California businesses practices. In one of the recently leaked emails Dr Luke explicitly says: " I don't give a shit what you want. If you were smart you would go in and sing."
But according to the law he is innocent. Now I am not a judge and honestly I don't believe I have researched well enough to make a judgement. I think if these claims are all false then Ke$ha is extremely disturbed, but if they are true (which i personally believe they are) then I think he is really a monster and this is yet another example that men are... ok not on here but basically my heart weeps for Ke$ha if the courts ruled incorrectly. In February 2016 her injunction was denied, so now she is forced to remain under Dr Luke. In April of that year her claims of sexual abuse were dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence and her claims of gender violence were dismissed because: "Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime" and it doesn't appear that "Gottwald harbored animus toward women or was motivated by gender animus when he allegedly behaved violently toward Ke$ha" (statements made by the presiding Judge Kornreich, who is married to a partner at the firm that represents Sony #hmm).
In this case of The Industry vs Women, The Industry have won: The Woman is forced to work under a man who violated her human rights repeatedly and now refuses to approve, let alone release, any of her music.
I find this case super super sad because, as Ke$ha herself said: "I don’t think that my case is giving people who have been abused confidence that they can speak out." It is so important that we remind ourselves that rapists are criminals! It isn't fair that society has put such a stigma on being the victim of rape that justice goes unserved. Rape is incredibly common and unreported rape disturbingly common also. It is down to the victim to deal with it how he/she decides to, however society should be 300% more supportive, we really aren't doing well enough. For example, although she apologised after, Wendy Williams spoke on this case saying "Unfortunately business is business, and it sounds like it's fair. If everybody complained because somebody allegedly sexually abused them and was ripping them off, then contracts would be broken all the time.” - JUST NO, 'business is business'? Let's do better guys!
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