NE-YO has said he won't turn his back on Chris Brown.
The R&B star is good friends with Brown, who was found guilty of beating up ex-girlfriend Rihanna after a Grammys party in February.
And although Ne-Yo, 29, has been working with the Umbrella singer on her next album, he won't be addressing the issue on any songs he writes.
Speaking to MTV News, he said: "I've done some stuff for Rihanna's [project]. I didn't really want to go there too much, because I know that's what everybody is expecting.
"I don't think there isn't a person alive that doesn't know what happened and what it was. I don't think that needs to be a song that's sung or written.
"It's sad that it took that happening to get the attention it deserves. Women get beat up all the time, and nobody says anything about it or chooses to do anything about it.
"But now that it happened to a celebrity, [it's] 'let's talk about it on Oprah Winfrey.'"
He added: "Chris Brown is a friend of mine, and I don't view him as a bad guy for what happened. It was an absolute mistake, and he has some lessons to learn and some maturing to do.
"But I'm not gonna bash him for that. I'm not gonna turn my back on a person I call my friend because he made a mistake. [So] I can't write the Chris Brown bash song and then turn around and look myself in the mirror."