It’s been a long road, full of plenty of well-documented offenses, but it seems that singer R. Kelly may finally be seeing the consequences. The recent Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” seems to be having an impact where other interviews, articles, and court proceedings have not. Kelly’s record label RCA/Sony has said that they will not move forward with any music that has been produced with him or any new music until his issues are resolved… which, with investigations against him pending in New York, Georgia, and Illinois, will likely not be anytime soon.
R. Kelly’s very public offenses go all the way back to 1994 when he was illegally married to the singer Aaliyah. He was 27 and she was 15. He had helped her forge documents to say that she was 18, and the marriage was later annulled. The singer has been constantly plagued by rumors and accusations of sex with underage girls and attempting to do so. In 2002 there was a tape that was released, allegedly of Kelly, that we don’t need to go into because I want to sleep tonight. And then there’s the child pornography trial (he was acquitted).
More recently, accusations of Kelly keeping several young women at a time isolated from friends and family in what some have called a sort of “sex cult.” It’s these allegations that were turned into the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” But the times are different now. #MeToo has produced #MuteRKelly on social media. Women are being listened to in a way they never have before, and the allegations seem to be taken more seriously.
