Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
R. Kelly under criminal investigation … ‘Surviving’ spurs probe (tmz.com).
“Surviving” being the Surviving R. Kelly six-part Lifetime docuseries detailing sexual abuse allegations against the singer and following on from cops being called to his “wild” birthday party in Chicago yesterday seemingly after a call regarding a bogus warrant for the singer’s arrest and seemingly an erroneous claim he was holding two women hostage (tmz.com).
Sources connected to the case tell us the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation into allegations made against the singer in “Surviving R. Kelly.” We’re told the probe was launched over the past few days as a direct result of what ‘Surviving’ depicted.
With investigators “reaching out” to several alleged sex-slave survivors featured in the docuseries who allegedly escaped from the singer’s home and his “music being shut down” (bbc.co.uk) in terms of play and streaming sales in response to a campaign to “mute R. Kelly” with artists including Lady Gaga and Omarion apologising for working with him and John Legend describing him as a “serial abuser”. As for the songs and collaborations “now tainted”, the list is long and a who’s-who of pop, rap and R&B: Here are 53 songs written or sung by R. Kelly that are now tainted (buzzfeednews.com).
Accusations against R. Kelly and his alleged sex cult are nothing new and much discussed with the list of Kelly’s alleged offenses very serious yet bizarre and most infamously pop-culturally against a minor (Wikipedia) with the singer tried in court and found not guilty but with it arguable due more to technicalities.
Updated 14th January 2019
And seemingly as with the Cardi B vs Nicki Minaj feud (Blog 9th Sept. 2018) all need to take a side with no middle ground or fence sitting tolerated:
R. Kelly protesters and fans faced off outside his Chicago studio (buzzfeednews.com).
While protesters chalked messages on the sidewalk outside the studio and chanted “R. Kelly, your time is up!” and “Black girls matter!” two white cars flaunting signs that read ”R. Kelly We [heart] U” arrived in front of the studio loudly playing the singer’s music, according to a video from the Chicago Tribune.
And certainly sensing this is music’s #MeToo:
R. Kelly label puts his music on hold … amid ‘Surviving’ heat (tmz.com).
Sources familiar with R. Kelly’s contract and dealings with RCA/Sony tell us … the label will not produce any of the singer’s new music, it will not put money behind any of his projects, and it will not release any additional music until the criminal investigations in Georgia and other fallout resolve one way or the other.
Updated 17th January 2019
Dave Chappelle R. Kelly & his goons threatened me for ‘Piss on You’ skit (tmz.com).
Dave Chappelle says R. Kelly and his “goons” bum-rushed him over his famous skit mocking the singer’s urination video—but Dave’s sense of humor definitely saved the day.
But said skit having made it a pop cultural joke some may consider it somewhat paradoxical for a parodic illustrator painting XXXtina “squirting” while getting it up the bum to consider a line perhaps best not crossed as humour with regards victim of abuse being parodied being a minor at the time.
Updated 18th January 2019
And Sony deciding putting his music “on hold” is not enough to shake the taint:
R. Kelly dropped by Sony (tmz.com).
Sources close to Kelly tell us both sides agreed on a split this week. The end of their relationship comes amid the storm of controversy after the docuseries, “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Updated 17th February 2019
And back to that video which has curiously been deemed fit for pop cultural humour:
R Kelly could face criminal charges over sex tape of ‘him and 14-year-old girl’ (mirror.co.uk).
It was passed to the [celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti] by a “whistleblower”, it’s said, before being handed to prosecutors in Chicago.
And seemingly featuring the same act as the tape sent to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 but which did not appear in evidence in his 2008 trial in which he was acquitted with Kelly claiming he is not that man:
This new tape allegedly shows 43-minutes of explicit scenes featuring a man, who CNN say appears to be Kelly, performing multiple sex acts with the girl.
And in which:
She allegedly calls him “daddy” multiple times.
The media company also says the man asks the girl to urinate before her urinates on her.
And with Avenatti saying his client having known Kelly for decades and having met the girl on a number of occasions.
Updated 22nd February 2019
Singer R Kelly ‘charged with sexual offences’ (bbc.co.uk).
There are four alleged victims, according to US media who have seen court records, who were aged 13 to 16 at the time of their assaults.
And seemingly with evidence to back up the claims:
R. KELLY: 2 ACCUSERS TESTIFIED BEFORE GRAND JURY … One provided physical evidence (tmz.com).
Sources familiar with the hearing tell TMZ … one alleged victim testified she was underage when she had sex with the singer in Illinois between 2008 and 2010. We’re told she provided prosecutors with physical evidence to back her allegations. We do not know the nature of that evidence.
But more on the charges emerged as Kelly turned himself in:
R. Kelly has been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual abuse (buzzfeednews.com).
According to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Kelly is accused of forcing oral penetration with two underage victims, one from 1998 until 2001, and another from 2009 to 2010. He is also charged with forced sexual penetration with another underage victim from 1998 until 1999, and with threatening and forcing himself on another victim by ejaculating on her in 2003.
Kelly turned himself in to police shortly after 8 p.m. Friday and is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing on Saturday. Chicago police confirmed Kelly’s arrest shortly after he arrived.
Updated 23rd February 2019
R Kelly: Singer’s bail set at $1m after sex abuse charges (bbc.co.uk).
A judge in the US has set R Kelly’s bail at $1m (£766,500) after the singer was charged with sexually abusing four females, including three minors.
And although the 52-year-old is still denying wrongdoing—his attorney Steve Greenberg saying “I think all the women are lying” (cnn.com)—ordered to surrender his passport and to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Updated 25th February 2019
R. Kelly: Avenatti turns over new sex tape … more depraved than 1st (tmz.com).
Prosecutors are about to get another sex tape in the R. Kelly case, and sources tell us it is even more shocking than the most recent one.
And with some pretty lurid details which the TMZ article describes and a third tape with a different girl sought.
Updated 6th March 2019
And now out on that $1m bail:
R. Kelly breaks silence over sex abuse accusations: ‘This is not me’ (bbc.co.uk).
“I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me,” he told CBS This Morning, adding that he is “fighting for my life”.
And decrying to CBS news reporter Gayle King that “You can’t double jeopardy me like that” and that he had “already “beat your case” with regards the case back in 2002 before getting more and more agitated and saying:
“Use your common sense,” he continued, raising his voice and turning to address the camera.
“Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to; love me if you want. But just use your common sense.”
And, becoming tearful: “Quit playing, quit playing, this is not me.”
Updated 2nd May 2019
‘There are no hostages,’ says the man defending R Kelly (bbc.co.uk).
With that man being criminal defense lawyer Steve Greenberg who, Auntie notes, “loves a challenge” and the headline his denial that the singer held women hostage as part of a sex cult at his home.
“I have been over to his condo. We’ve been reading, we’ve been talking about stuff. We decided we wanted to get something to eat. The two girls went out to Chipotle, down the street to get the food and bring it back.”
Which, along with describing his client as “a regular guy” who likes McDonald’s, “lives in a regular condo in Trump Tower” and who “smokes cigars at a cigar bar” may leave some curious as to whether he is perhaps a little too close to his client, being invited over to “talk about stuff” with girls ushered out to get Chipotle, and the defense strategy seemingly being that a desire to smoke cigars and eat fast food makes him enough of a common man who is obviously incapable of wrong doing similar to the fat tycoon disaffected Midwestern common man had elected to sit and fast food fart behind the Oval Office’s Resolute desk to look after their as well as his own interests.
And denying the existence of the new video too, despite CNN claiming to have seen it:
“That is not a new or different video than the video that a jury decided was not R Kelly.”
Next page: Singer charged with 11 new counts of sexual assault and abuse then arrested on federal sex crime charges and then charged with prostitution and solicitation involving a girl under 18 and for bribing an official to marry Aaliyah when she was 15