Katy Perry shared details of her upcoming album 143 — named after the Nineties pager code for “I love you” — on Wednesday (July 10), revealing that the long awaited project will be arriving on September 20 via Capitol Records.
As Rolling Stone previously reported, Perry reunited with some producers of her previous works, including Stargate, Max Martin and, most controversially, Dr. Luke. In 2023, Kesha and Dr. Luke settled their bitter, nine-year legal battle before it was scheduled to go to trial. The producer claimed Kesha defamed him in 2014 when she made the “false and shocking” allegation that he drugged and raped her after a 2005 party.
At one point in the legal battle, Perry was brought into the conversation. In a deposition dated July 21, 2017, and released in August 2018, Perry denied allegations that Luke raped her. She also said she was never given a roofie by Luke, never in a sexual or romantic relationship with Luke and never told anyone — even jokingly — that Luke raped her.
The claims were part of Luke’s defamation lawsuit against Kesha, with Luke’s team claiming then that Kesha told Lady Gaga in a text message conversation that Luke had raped Perry as well. Kesha, in turn, responded saying that her and Gaga had been both told that information first by a major label CEO.
With Dr. Luke’s controversial past and in light of his legal battle with Kesha, a number of fans took to social media to express disappointment in Perry’s choice to reunite with the producer. “I’m sorry but I can’t listen to any new Katy Perry song that is written and/or produced by Dr Luke,” one fan tweeted, for example. “I don’t like Dr Luke for many reasons and I just can’t personally support his career. I’m sorry Katy but I am very disappointed.”
See below for more fan reactions about Perry working with Dr. Luke.