From rape to artistic deprivation, the story of Kesha against Dr. Luke that is generating #FreeKesha

Kesha became one of the most important figures in pop music in recent years, thanks to the controversial proposal of his music, which was characterized by having a mixture of one of the most popular genres in the world, giving us the characteristic “electro-pop” that dominated the charts from 2009 to 2014. Although she had a career as promising as her contemporaries, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, her career crossed paths with her then music producer Dr. Luke and a series of scandals that remain unresolved to this day.

Kesha Rose Sebert, which is her birth name, rose to fame with her single Tik Tok in 2009, being a very different proposal to the extravagance -Gaga- and the fantasy world -Perry- that had become the two new maxim that pop singers began to adopt after being very careful with their physical appearance and denim apparel.

Kesha's relationship with Dr. Luke began in 2005, long before she rose to fame in the United States and the rest of the world. The singer was about to finish her senior year of high school in Nashville, Tennessee, but decided to drop out and move to Los Angeles. Supposedly he was the one who convinced the teenager to make this life-changing decision, according to American media such as TMZ.

It wasn't long since she moved that the singer celebrated her 18th birthday and signed an exclusive six-album recording agreement with the producer. According to the agreement, Dr. Luke would receive a percentage of the sales of each album and it was here that one of the most controversial and important musical battles in recent decades would begin.

Despite the fact that the media scandal began in 2013, the problems began almost immediately. According to Buzzfeed News, Dr. Luke claimed that they only worked together for months before Kesha tried to get out of her contract. She also alleged that, at that time, she threatened to create “false accusations of abuse” if he did not agree to release her, a version he has maintained until now.

The lawsuit was officially filed by the performer of hits like We R Who We R, Die Young or Timber - in collaboration with Pitbull - in 2014, however the basis for it all happened 9 years ago. According to Billboard, Kesha's lawsuit alleged that Dr. Luke gave her something he called “sobriety pills”, which were actually the GHB drug for date rape, before taking her back to her hotel room and raping her.

This allegedly happened in the home of another pop culture character in the 2000s: Paris Hilton. Apparently they both attended an after-party for Nicky Hilton's birthday at the house in Paris, where he would have given her the drug, according to her. In a story published by the magazine responsible for the Billboard Hot 100 - the most important list of musical popularity in the world - Kesha's mother, Pebe Sebert, detailed how her daughter allegedly woke up naked and disoriented in the producer's hotel room without remembering what happened.

The singer allegedly told her mother: “I don't know where I am. I think we had sex. I'm sore and sick. I don't know where my clothes are. I think I have to go to the hospital.” Both reportedly didn't go to the police because Kesha “just wanted to sing and didn't want to be the victim of a rape case.”

Lukasz Sebastian Gottwaldha, which is the official name of the producer, has on more than one occasion denied Kesha's claims. In a statement, via E! In the United States, her lawyers claimed that she was “expelled from the after party for her behavior” and the producer helped her “as an act of kindness.” Kesha wrote the song Paris Hilton's Closet, about vomiting at the event.

In 2012 Dr. Luke co-founded Kemosabe, the Sony Music label where he served as CEO. At that same time, the couple worked on their second album, Warrior, but according to the lawsuit reports, things were “tense”. The New York Times revealed that the couple began fighting for the creative direction of Kesha's music. Supposedly said American newspaper, she wanted a rock sound with lyrics that ventured beyond the party, something that, according to her, Dr. Luke did not want or allow it in any way and ended up rejecting her lyrical ideas.

In October 2014, Kesha filed the civil suit in California, United States, against Dr. Luke, claiming that her time working with the producer was like a “prison of abuse.” According to Buzzfeed News, the lawsuit alleges that the producer had committed “sexual assault and assault, sexual harassment, gender-based violence, civil harassment, unfair commercial practices and inflicting emotional distress” since Kesha was just 18 years old and he forced her to use drugs and alcohol “in an effort to abuse her.”

After a nearly two-year battle, Kesha dropped her stagnant civil suit in August 2016. In 2017 the story took a big turn that continued to scandalize the music industry: He threatened to initiate a new defamation lawsuit, this time with a 2016 text message that Kesha sent to Lady Gaga, in which she alleged that she had raped Katy Perry.

A couple of months later, the performer of hits such as Bad Romance, Always Remember Us This Way or Poker Face was quoted and, according to Vulture, forced to deliver the unedited texts. Perry was also deposed and confirmed that the producer did not sexually assault her.

This whole panorama, which does not seem to have a close end, but a new continuation to the long history, has generated a movement that pop music lovers remember very well because it recently gave freedom to one of the most successful female soloists in the history of humanity: Britney Spears.

#FreeBritney is not only one of the most popular and fruitful movements of recent times that gave the singer of hits such as Gimme More, Baby One More Time or Toxic her freedom from the unjustified guardianship that her father had over her for more than a decade, which now in more than one documentary, interview or statements by Britney herself has classified it as “inhumane, abusive and economically interested in her fortune”.

#FreeKesha is pop culture's attempt to give the singer freedom in the same way that months ago the world helped with social pressure to make Spears an independent woman today. Kesha at the time not only emphasized with Britney but made her unconditional support public, being also a woman within the music industry who is also in legal, creative and abusive problems.

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