This week on the podcast we discuss American music artist R. Kelly. The 54 year old artist broke into the music scene as a teenager, has made millions through his music career, selling over 75 million records and winning three Grammy awards.

Kelly was also widely known as ‘the pied piper of RnB’, following nearly 30 years of ongoing sexual abuse allegations against him. It is shocking to note how long he, a man of great power and fame was able to continue to abuse young women in his position before his September 2021 prosecution.

Channel 4 and Netflix released a documentary titled ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ in 2019 which interviewed a number of his alleged survivors. The documentary over 6 hours long, showed major patterns that these girls were minors ranging from between 12-16 years old. They would be asked to appear in music videos or join him and his team at young hang outs such as McDonalds or on his tour bus. It was alleged that R. Kelly would target very young girls especially those with aspirations to be singers.

Concerningly, the documentary noted that many of R. Kelly’s staff were aware and facilitated him meeting such young women. A former tour manager for Kelly testified during the New York  trial how he had bribed a government worker on Kelly’s behalf, to get the singer Aaliyah a fake ID so that Kelly could marry her when she was just 15 years old in 1994. Kelly was then 27 years old. The marriage was annulled a year later. During rumours of a relationship, journalists and presenters would ask about the relationship status but both denied they were in a relationship. This was just the beginning of abuse rumours to circulate.

In 1996, Kelly was sued for personal injury and emotional distress by an individual who claimed to be 15 at the time they began to have sexual intercourse.

In 2001, Kelly was sued by his intern and alleged she was used as his personal sex doll.

In the early 2000’s a sex tape was leaked perpetrating to show R Kelly performing sexual acts on a minor. This video then was circulated widely. Jokes were made in the media; this was turned into cartoons and people widely discussed this, it would seem without the seriousness of what was actually displayed in the tape by someone in a great deal of power. He remained a music star with deals and a record label behind him. He performs at the Superbowl in 2001.

In 2002, two further court cases commenced against Kelly for impregnating a minor and videotaping another without consent.

Also in 2002, Kelly was charged with 21 counts of making child pornography with one girl. It took 6 years to get to trial. By the time the case got to trial the alleged victim denied it was her in the videos. The aunt of the girl who originally recognised and identified her stated in the Surviving R Kelly documentary how she was offered a 6 figure salary to discuss this with Kelly’s team. The trial fell apart and Kelly was acquitted.

Between 2002 and 2004 Kelly was charged with a further 12 counts of making child pornography in Florida, where he was arrested at his holiday home.

At the same time of such allegations, R. Kelly hit the big time. Between 2005 and 2012 he wrote the ‘Trapped in the Closet’ album, a tale of sex and lies.

In the years that followed many rumours circulated that Kelly had begun a sex cult and had trapped women in his property without phones or the ability to leave dictating "what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records".

In 2018, one of the survivors broke the non-disclosure agreement to confirm she had sex with Kelly when she was underage.

In 2019, Kelly was sued by a former partner for intentionally infecting her with an STI.

In the 2019 documentary one of his survivors’ documents how she was videoed by R. Kelly without consent and how she was made by him to perform sex acts on another survivor who she later found out was underage. A number of women documented how they were