Jay-Z and R. Kelly worked together on two albums and a tour. While their working relationship went down in flames relatively quickly after embarking on the tour, they once had high hopes for it. Jay-Z said that his collaboration with Kelly was as big as having Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X working together.

Jay-Z once compared himself and R. Kelly to civil rights leaders

In 2002, Jay-Z and Kelly collaborated on the album The Best of Both Worlds. Jay-Z and Kelly were at the top of their respective genres, and the prospect of the album excited fans. Jay-Z promised it would be a big deal.

“When you get two people like this coming together, it sends a signal out,” Jay-Z said, per the Chicago Tribune. “It’s bigger than music. It’s like Martin and Malcolm coming together.”

He repeated the sentiment in the album’s title track.

“The combination of Pappy Mason and Larry Davis / Martin and Malcolm, this is the bigger than the album are-ah.”

Jay-Z and R. Kelly’s working relationship fell apart

Jay-Z and Kelly’s planned 2002 tour fell apart following allegations of sexual misconduct against Kelly. Two years later, however, they reunited on the album Best of Both Worlds and a subsequent tour. It didn’t take long before the tour ran into trouble.

Kelly was frequently late and, during one show, he left the stage to work the drive-thru at a local McDonald’s. At their Madison Square Garden show, Kelly became convinced that someone in the audience had a gun and stopped the show. Before he got back onstage, one of Jay-Z’s friends reportedly pepper-sprayed him.

“I was right behind Rob as he mounts the metal steps to go up onto the backstage area, and all of a sudden there’s a commotion and he falls back on top of me, and he’s yelling about his eyes, that he’s been sprayed,” Kelly’s former crisis manager Allan Mayer said. “The same young guy who had been running up and down the corridor had (pepper) sprayed him. It was pandemonium at that point.”

Jay-Z viewed the tour as a complete disaster.

“Didn’t go well?” he told Rolling Stone in 2010. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

He faced criticism for working with the disgraced singer

The two joint albums and tour, however brief, brought Jay-Z criticism. Damon Dash, who founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z, was horrified that anyone would work with the person who illegally married an underaged Aaliyah, his late girlfriend.

“It’s morally wrong to do a project with someone that we know raped my girl or raped anybody for that matter,” Dash said, per Yahoo. “So I do know that conversation was had, and I was really surprised that he moved forward with that relationship.”

Nas, who feuded with Jay-Z for years, also called him out for working with Kelly.

“I could have shown the R. Kelly video that everybody’s talking about and made fun of it and show pictures of Jay hanging out,” he said, per Vibe Magazine. “You can’t tell me Jay didn’t see a 14-year-old girl come into the studio and sit on R. Kelly’s lap. You gonna tell me he didn’t see no 14-year-old girl come into the vicinity?”

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.