WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 It's a statistic that absolutely stops you in 00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:05.480 your tracks. In 2025, so just last year, Billboard 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.140 put out their definitive data crunching list 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:11.119 of the greatest R &B artists of all time. And 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:12.960 sitting right there at number nine, I mean, it's 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.240 sandwiched between these legends who are universally 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.679 beloved, figures you'd see on a postage stamp, 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:20.000 is a man who was currently waking up every morning 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.500 in a federal prison cell in North Carolina. Inmate 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:26.420 number 09620035, that's his designation. Exactly. 00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:28.120 We are talking, of course, about Robert Sylvester 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:32.770 Kelly. R. Kelly. And looking at that list, seeing 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:35.770 that number nine spot, it just it highlights 00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:38.329 this massive, really uncomfortable cognitive 00:00:38.329 --> 00:00:40.189 dissonance we are all living with right now. 00:00:40.270 --> 00:00:42.829 It's unavoidable. How does the industry and culture 00:00:42.829 --> 00:00:47.289 at large grapple with a figure who is undeniably 00:00:47.289 --> 00:00:49.670 a musical architect of the last 30 years? Someone 00:00:49.670 --> 00:00:51.850 who literally built the soundscape of the 90s 00:00:51.850 --> 00:00:54.969 and 2000s, but whose personal conduct was so 00:00:54.969 --> 00:00:56.770 heinous that he's effectively serving a life 00:00:56.770 --> 00:00:59.380 sentence. It is the ultimate separation of art 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:02.060 and artist test, isn't it? But with Kelly, and 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:03.679 this is what we're going to find out today, it's 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:06.799 not just about separation. It's about entanglement. 00:01:06.939 --> 00:01:09.079 When we reviewed the massive stack of source 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:11.939 material for this deep dive, the court transcripts, 00:01:11.939 --> 00:01:14.200 the biographies, discography notes, the legal 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:17.840 filings from as recently as June 2025, what really 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:19.560 struck me is that you can't actually separate 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:23.310 them. But two sides of it. Exactly. The the trauma 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:25.870 that created the predator is the exact same trauma 00:01:25.870 --> 00:01:28.170 that created the musical genius. They fuel each 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:30.530 other. It's a closed loop. That is what we need 00:01:30.530 --> 00:01:32.629 to unpack today. We aren't just doing a true 00:01:32.629 --> 00:01:35.209 crime timeline and we aren't just doing a VH1 00:01:35.209 --> 00:01:37.549 behind the music greatest hits review. We're 00:01:37.549 --> 00:01:40.209 trying to understand the machinery of this man. 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:42.829 How did he happen? How did a system allow him 00:01:42.829 --> 00:01:45.930 to survive for so long? And crucially, what is 00:01:45.930 --> 00:01:48.109 happening to him right now? behind bars. And 00:01:48.109 --> 00:01:50.569 those 2025 updates are so critical because they 00:01:50.569 --> 00:01:52.629 show that while the world might have, you know, 00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:56.189 muted R. Kelly, his story is very much active. 00:01:56.310 --> 00:01:58.609 It's not over. Not at all. He's petitioning the 00:01:58.609 --> 00:02:01.030 Supreme Court. He's having these medical emergencies 00:02:01.030 --> 00:02:04.150 that sound incredibly severe. This isn't a closed 00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:06.709 book by any stretch of the imagination. So let's 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:09.330 rewind. To understand the federal prisoner, we 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:11.330 have to go back to the source. We have to go 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:14.370 back to the south side of Chicago, January 8th, 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:18.270 1967. Hyde Park. The Chicago Langan Hospital, 00:02:18.449 --> 00:02:20.449 that's where he was born. But, you know, he didn't 00:02:20.449 --> 00:02:22.330 stay in Hyde Park. He was raised in the Bronzeville 00:02:22.330 --> 00:02:25.110 district, specifically in the Ida B. Wells homes. 00:02:25.349 --> 00:02:26.810 And if you're not familiar with Chicago history, 00:02:27.069 --> 00:02:29.210 you really need to understand what Ida B. Wells 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:32.569 was in the 1970s. This wasn't just housing. Oh, 00:02:32.629 --> 00:02:34.990 not at all. It was a world unto itself. It was 00:02:34.990 --> 00:02:37.590 high density, high poverty, yes, but also this 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:40.969 incredibly intense community bond. It was a place 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:43.069 with its own rules, its own culture, its own 00:02:43.069 --> 00:02:46.639 dangers. And his family dynamic was. Well, the 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:48.979 sources describe it as a study in absence and 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:51.500 presence. A powerful way to put it. His father 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:53.699 was completely out of the picture. A total void. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.319 Kelly didn't even know who he was. Which is an 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:58.199 emptiness that shows up in the lyrics later on. 00:02:58.259 --> 00:03:00.379 You hear that searching for a father figure or 00:03:00.379 --> 00:03:03.780 this attempt to become the all -powerful patriarchy 00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:05.800 he never had. Constantly. It's all over his work. 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:08.360 But the presence in the home was his mother, 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.039 Joanne. She was a schoolteacher and a devout 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.379 Baptist. And that devout part is key. the church 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.680 the church was the center of gravity sunday service 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:19.800 wasn't optional it was the rhythm of life but 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:23.419 even there kelly describes a kind of duality 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:25.939 in his mother he actually called it a dr jekyll 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:28.620 and mr hyde situation in his autobiography right 00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:31.319 i read that part when she was there and focused 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:34.340 it was tricked it was love but it was a very 00:03:34.340 --> 00:03:38.819 firm structured love but when she wasn't That's 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.759 when the darkness crept in. And we have to address 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:43.500 the trauma immediately because according to his 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:45.520 book, Solo Coaster, and corroborated by his brother, 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:49.159 Kerry, the abuse started incredibly young. Between 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:52.639 ages 8 and 14. And this is the part of the story 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:55.080 that is so difficult to process, but it's absolutely 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:57.319 necessary if you want to understand his psychological 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:00.699 profile. He alleges he was sexually abused by 00:04:00.699 --> 00:04:03.520 an older female family member who was supposed 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:06.300 to be babysitting him. Which just flips the script 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:08.379 on safety, doesn't it? The protector becomes 00:04:08.379 --> 00:04:10.939 the predator. Yeah. And it creates this profound, 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:13.699 deep -seated confusion about affection and violation, 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:17.379 about love and power. Precisely. And it wasn't 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:19.660 a one -time thing. The sources say this was years 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:22.620 of conditioning. Then you add to that an incident 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:25.560 around age 10 with a male family friend. Kelly 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:28.220 wrote that he was, and this is a quote, too afraid 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:31.250 and too ashamed to speak. So he internalized 00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.269 it. He locked it away. He took all that confusion 00:04:33.269 --> 00:04:36.410 about sexuality and shame and secrecy, and he 00:04:36.410 --> 00:04:39.370 built a vault around it. He learned at a very 00:04:39.370 --> 00:04:41.889 formative age that sexuality is something you 00:04:41.889 --> 00:04:44.529 hide, something that is transactionally linked 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:47.550 to power dynamics and control. But there's another 00:04:47.550 --> 00:04:49.930 layer to this childhood trauma that isn't sexual, 00:04:50.050 --> 00:04:52.889 but it's deeply, deeply psychological. And honestly, 00:04:53.029 --> 00:04:54.709 this part of the research really stuck with me, 00:04:54.750 --> 00:04:57.149 the story of Lulu. This one is haunting. It's 00:04:57.149 --> 00:04:59.980 the kind of thing that just... It breaks a child. 00:05:00.139 --> 00:05:02.720 He was eight years old. Yeah. Lulu was his girlfriend, 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:04.800 or, you know, as much of a girlfriend as an eight 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:07.439 -year -old has. It was innocent. They were playing 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.300 near a creek in the neighborhood. And this is 00:05:09.300 --> 00:05:11.399 where the environment of the projects comes back 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:13.720 in. It wasn't some idyllic, safe playground. 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:16.740 Some older kids started a fight over the play 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:20.019 area. It was chaotic. Violence just erupted. 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:22.720 And in the scuffle, Lulu got pushed. She fell 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:24.720 into the water. And it wasn't a calm stream. 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:27.370 The current took her. He watched her drown. At 00:05:27.370 --> 00:05:29.790 eight years old, he watched the water take the 00:05:29.790 --> 00:05:32.550 first person he ever loved outside his family. 00:05:32.970 --> 00:05:35.790 He cites this explicitly as his first musical 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.589 inspiration. The grief unlocked something in 00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:41.350 him. He couldn't process it with words, so melody 00:05:41.350 --> 00:05:43.850 became the language for his pain. It's so interesting 00:05:43.850 --> 00:05:45.689 you mention the water because later in his career, 00:05:45.769 --> 00:05:48.329 water becomes this massive symbol. The storm 00:05:48.329 --> 00:05:50.889 is over. The constant rain in his videos. The 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.930 baptismal imagery. It's always cleansing or dangerous. 00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:57.100 It's never just water. It's a recurring motif, 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.000 absolutely. But there was another trauma around 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.040 age 13. He was shot. Shot in the shoulder while 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.519 riding his bike. Though I did see a conflicting 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.579 account that it might have been self -inflicted. 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:09.959 Right. The story is murky, which is also a theme 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:13.040 with him. But either way, a young teenager getting 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:16.399 shot, it just adds another layer of violence 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.480 and chaos to his formative years. So the immediate 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:22.519 release valve for all this, the abuse, the grief, 00:06:22.660 --> 00:06:26.199 the poverty, the violence. was the subway. The 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:28.879 L tracks. Specifically, the Jackson station on 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:32.259 the red line. You have to picture it. A teenage 00:06:32.259 --> 00:06:35.480 Robert Kelly standing on that platform under 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.959 those tracks. The trains are deafening. The screech 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:41.399 of steel on steel. To be heard over that, you 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:43.540 have to project. You've got power in your voice. 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:45.459 He wasn't just singing for fun. He was busking. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.680 He was hustling for loose change. It was survival. 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:51.329 His first stage. It was his training ground. 00:06:51.529 --> 00:06:53.610 He learned how to capture an audience that was 00:06:53.610 --> 00:06:55.730 actively trying to ignore him. He learned how 00:06:55.730 --> 00:06:57.829 to make people stop in their tracks. But, you 00:06:57.829 --> 00:07:00.290 know, raw talent in a subway tunnel usually stays 00:07:00.290 --> 00:07:01.930 in the subway tunnel unless someone comes along 00:07:01.930 --> 00:07:04.410 to refine it. That's where Lena McGlynn enters 00:07:04.410 --> 00:07:06.649 the narrative. The music teacher at Kenwood Academy. 00:07:06.870 --> 00:07:09.949 Right. Every great artist seems to have. That 00:07:09.949 --> 00:07:13.350 one teacher, that one mentor who intervenes at 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:15.629 the exact right moment. McCarlin was that figure 00:07:15.629 --> 00:07:17.529 for him. She didn't just teach him scales. The 00:07:17.529 --> 00:07:19.589 sources say she acted as a surrogate mother figure. 00:07:19.810 --> 00:07:22.610 She saw the pain, but she also saw the immense 00:07:22.610 --> 00:07:26.110 raw talent. And she pushed him. There's the famous 00:07:26.110 --> 00:07:28.290 Stevie Wonder moment the sources always mention. 00:07:28.389 --> 00:07:30.529 Right. She basically forced him to perform Ribbon 00:07:30.529 --> 00:07:32.709 in the Sky at a high school talent show. And 00:07:32.709 --> 00:07:35.470 he was terrified. We think of R. Kelly as this... 00:07:36.370 --> 00:07:38.889 swaggering, hyper -confident superstar, but back 00:07:38.889 --> 00:07:41.829 then, he was painfully shy. He wore sunglasses 00:07:41.829 --> 00:07:43.850 on stage because he couldn't make eye contact 00:07:43.850 --> 00:07:46.290 with the crowd. The story goes he had to be physically 00:07:46.290 --> 00:07:48.329 escorted to the microphone. But when he opened 00:07:48.329 --> 00:07:51.519 his mouth... The room just stopped. He won first 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:54.019 prize. And you have to imagine what that felt 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:55.579 like. It was the first time he got validation 00:07:55.579 --> 00:07:57.920 for his voice rather than feeling shame for his 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.000 secrets. But there's a technical detail about 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.439 his time at Kenwood that I want to drill down 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:04.680 on because I think it explains the sound of R. 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:07.139 Kelly more than anything else. The sources mentioned 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:10.120 he was diagnosed with dyslexia. Yes. And we need 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:13.199 to be clear. This wasn't mild dyslexia. He was, 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:15.439 for all intents and purposes, functionally unable 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.360 to read or write text. And critically, he couldn't 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:21.620 read or write standard musical notation. So how 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:24.980 does a guy who can't read music become one of 00:08:24.980 --> 00:08:27.500 the most prolific songwriters in history? I mean, 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:29.339 we're talking about thousands and thousands of 00:08:29.339 --> 00:08:31.839 songs. By developing a completely different cognitive 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.159 process. He didn't learn music. He felt it. He 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:37.899 described it as visualizing the music. He wouldn't 00:08:37.899 --> 00:08:40.200 look at a staff and see notes. He would hear 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:42.840 the full arrangement in his head, the drums, 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:45.179 the bass, the harmonies, the vocal stacks, and 00:08:45.179 --> 00:08:47.940 he had to record from the gut. It's almost like 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:50.279 the disability forced to work around that became 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:52.759 his superpower. That's a perfect way to describe 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:54.340 it. Because he couldn't write it down, he had 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:56.240 to make it catchy enough to remember. That's 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.379 why his hooks are so sticky. That's why the melodies 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:01.120 are so repetitive and almost like chants. He 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.120 was composing for memory, not for the page. He 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.340 was following the feeling rather than the formal 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:08.779 rules of composition. Which makes total sense. 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.659 So he drops out of high school because, let's 00:09:11.659 --> 00:09:14.320 be honest, the academic system wasn't built for 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.019 someone like him. And he forms the group MGM. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.759 Musically Gifted Men. Right. And they get their 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:22.179 big shot on a TV show called Big Break. Which 00:09:22.179 --> 00:09:25.139 was basically American Idol or The Voice before 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:27.360 any of those existed. It was hosted by Natalie 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:29.840 Cole. They went on and performed a song called 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:32.340 All My Love, which is actually the demo that 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:34.860 later became She's Got That Vibe. And they won 00:09:34.860 --> 00:09:39.240 the grand prize, $100 ,000. And in the late 80s, 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.309 for a kid from the Ida B. Walls homes? $100 ,000. 00:09:42.470 --> 00:09:44.230 I mean, that's not just life -changing. That 00:09:44.230 --> 00:09:46.389 is a staggering amount of money. It was the ticket 00:09:46.389 --> 00:09:49.090 out. It was proof of concept. That win led directly 00:09:49.090 --> 00:09:52.110 to the contract with Jive Records in 1991. And 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:54.509 that, well, that launches us into the era that 00:09:54.509 --> 00:09:56.990 defined the 90s. We are entering Section 2, The 00:09:56.990 --> 00:09:58.990 Ascent of the King. And it starts with the New 00:09:58.990 --> 00:10:01.529 Jack Swing era. If you listen to that first album 00:10:01.529 --> 00:10:03.450 with his group Public Announcement, born into 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:06.309 the 90s, it's very of its time. Oh, very much 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:10.190 so. Hits like She's Got That Vibe, Honey Love. 00:10:10.269 --> 00:10:13.049 It's upbeat. It's danceable. It sounds a lot 00:10:13.049 --> 00:10:15.909 like Teddy Riley or Guy or Bobby Brown. It fits 00:10:15.909 --> 00:10:18.340 right in. But it's clear he wasn't content with 00:10:18.340 --> 00:10:20.639 that. No, you can tell Kelly clearly wanted more 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:22.600 than just to be the front man of a dance group. 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:26.120 He wanted the throne. He separated from the group 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:29.559 pretty quickly. And in 1993, with the release 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:32.659 of his first solo album, 12 Play, he didn't just 00:10:32.659 --> 00:10:35.519 ask for the throne. He took it. This is the pivotal 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:37.600 moment. This is where he creates the persona 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.519 that would make him rich and eventually infamous. 00:10:41.669 --> 00:10:44.309 The R &B thug. And we should define that term 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:46.210 R &B thug because I think modern listeners might 00:10:46.210 --> 00:10:48.090 take it for granted. Before R. Kelly, mainstream 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:50.830 R &B was, well, it was Luther Vandross. It was 00:10:50.830 --> 00:10:52.769 Freddie Jackson. It was smooth. It was suits 00:10:52.769 --> 00:10:54.990 and ties. It was romance. It was begging for 00:10:54.990 --> 00:10:57.090 love on bended knee. Exactly. It was polite. 00:10:57.210 --> 00:10:59.590 It was courtship. Kelly looked at what was happening 00:10:59.590 --> 00:11:02.090 in hip hop, the aggression, the explicit sexuality, 00:11:02.389 --> 00:11:04.730 the street aesthetic of N .W .A. or Dr. Dre, 00:11:04.909 --> 00:11:07.830 and he dragged it kicking and screaming into 00:11:07.830 --> 00:11:11.289 R &B. Bump and grind isn't asking for permission. 00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:14.309 It's a demand. My mind's telling me no. But my 00:11:14.309 --> 00:11:16.929 body's telling me yes. That opening line alone, 00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:20.230 that is the thesis statement for his entire life, 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:23.389 his entire career. It really is. It's the conflict 00:11:23.389 --> 00:11:25.509 between conscience and impulse played out over 00:11:25.509 --> 00:11:39.490 a slow jam beat. And the public. But what really 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:41.990 shows his genius, and again, I'm using that word 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:43.710 strictly in terms of his musical capability, 00:11:43.970 --> 00:11:45.830 is what he was doing for other people at the 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:48.149 exact same time. He wasn't just in his own lane. 00:11:48.289 --> 00:11:50.490 Oh, he was the whole highway. The production 00:11:50.490 --> 00:11:52.909 credits from this era are just staggering. He 00:11:52.909 --> 00:11:55.129 wasn't just making these sex songs for himself. 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:58.000 He became the industry's secret weapon. the go 00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:59.740 -to hit maker. The Michael Jackson connection 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.539 is still mind -blowing to me. 1995, You Are Not 00:12:02.539 --> 00:12:05.679 Alone. R. Kelly wrote and produced that song. 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:08.500 It holds a Guinness World Record. The first song 00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:10.980 to ever debut at number one on the Billboard 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:13.860 Hot 100. Just think about that. A kid from the 00:12:13.860 --> 00:12:16.559 Ida B. Wells homes who can't read music wrote 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:18.840 a number one debut for the undisputed king of 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.929 pop. And it's such a vulnerable, pure, almost 00:12:21.929 --> 00:12:24.929 gospel -inflected song. And then you realize 00:12:24.929 --> 00:12:27.490 it came from the same brain that wrote Sex Me 00:12:27.490 --> 00:12:30.429 Part 2. It's the Madonna -whore complex translated 00:12:30.429 --> 00:12:32.669 into sheet music. He could channel the sacred 00:12:32.669 --> 00:12:35.110 and the profane with equal conviction and seemingly 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:37.590 equal sincerity. He did it for Whitney Houston. 00:12:37.789 --> 00:12:39.850 He did it for Toni Braxton. He'd do it for Celine 00:12:39.850 --> 00:12:42.730 Dion with I'm Your Angel. And he did it for Aaliyah. 00:12:42.830 --> 00:12:45.230 Which is the dark heart beating at the center 00:12:45.230 --> 00:12:47.029 of this entire era. We have to touch on this 00:12:47.029 --> 00:12:49.769 now. He produced her debut album, Age Ain't Nothin' 00:12:49.769 --> 00:12:52.299 But a Number. And we know now, thanks to the 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:54.120 legal proceedings and the documentation that 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:56.720 has come out, that this was not just a mentorship. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.159 The illegal marriage in 1994, the certificate 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:01.679 was forged. She was 15 years old. He was 27. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.559 It set the pattern. It showed that he was using 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:06.820 his position as a producer, the gatekeeper of 00:13:06.820 --> 00:13:09.779 fame, the dream maker to access and groom young 00:13:09.779 --> 00:13:12.879 girls. And the album title? Age ain't nothing 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:15.440 but a number. Looking back, it feels like he 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.840 was taunting the public, hiding in plain sight. 00:13:18.059 --> 00:13:20.539 But the industry just... Look the other way. 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:23.519 The hits were undeniable. The machinery kept 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:26.539 moving. And nothing, absolutely nothing, was 00:13:26.539 --> 00:13:29.659 bigger than what happened in 1996. Space Jam. 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:33.240 I believe I can fly. You cannot overstate how 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:36.080 ubiquitous this song was. If you were alive in 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:39.600 1996 or 1997, you heard this song every single 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:42.500 day. It was at weddings, funerals, graduations, 00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:44.419 kindergarten recitals. Corporate motivational 00:13:44.419 --> 00:13:47.879 seminars. Everywhere. It won three Grammys. And 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:50.240 it signaled a shift in Kelly's own mind, I think. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.440 He started to see himself not just as an R &B 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:54.600 singer, but as a messenger. a spiritual vessel. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.240 He was bridging that gap between the club and 00:13:57.240 --> 00:13:59.080 the church. He was telling the listener, I can 00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:01.759 be a sinner, but I can also be a saint. And for 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.039 a long time, the public allowed it. Which brings 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:07.200 us to possibly the most bizarre manifestation 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:10.379 of his I can do anything attitude from that period. 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:12.759 Yeah. The basketball career. I feel like this 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:15.159 is a fever dream, but the sources confirm it's 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:17.440 real. Lapse. I had to triple check this in the 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.960 notes myself. 1997, the Atlantic City Seagulls 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.000 of the United States Basketball League. This 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:24.919 wasn't a celebrity charity game where he played 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:26.820 for 10 minutes and took a few photos. No, this 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:29.940 was the USBL, a legitimate professional league, 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:32.980 one step below the NBA. He signed a contract. 00:14:33.259 --> 00:14:36.240 He played in games under his own name. He wore 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:39.019 jersey number 12, obviously honoring 12 play. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.519 Of course he did. And by all accounts, he wasn't 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:44.559 terrible. The team's owner, Ken Gross, insisted 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:46.840 it wasn't a gimmick that Kelly could actually 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:49.179 play. But the best part, the most R. Kelly part, 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:51.679 is this whole story. is the contract clause. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.299 The Whitney Houston clause, essentially. I am 00:14:54.299 --> 00:14:56.419 about this. It's incredible. He had a clause 00:14:56.419 --> 00:14:58.500 written into his professional sports contract 00:14:58.500 --> 00:15:01.600 that said if he needed to perform a musical obligation, 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:04.580 he could leave the team immediately, no questions 00:15:04.580 --> 00:15:07.120 asked. So theoretically, you could be in the 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.480 fourth quarter of a tight game, and Kelly could 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:12.360 just say, sorry, coach, Celine Dion needs a bridge 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:14.879 for her new single, and he'd just walk off the 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.679 court. It's funny, but it's also a symptom, isn't 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.379 it? It shows a man who has never been told no. 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:23.559 A man who believes he is the center of every 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:26.519 universe he occupies. Absolutely. It's the behavior 00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:29.080 of someone who believes he creates his own reality. 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:31.580 He wanted to be an NBA player. He bought his 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:33.360 way into being one. He wanted to be the king 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.539 of R &B. He took it. And for a long, long time, 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:40.299 that reality held up. But as we move into the 00:15:40.299 --> 00:15:43.659 2000s, into Section 3 of our timeline, that reality 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:45.639 starts to fracture. The hits continue, but the 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:47.899 chaos, it just ramps up. Right. We enter the 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:51.480 TP2 .com era in 2000. He's reclaiming the R &B 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.039 throne after a brief quiet period. But then comes 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:57.139 the collaboration with Jay -Z. The best of both 00:15:57.139 --> 00:15:59.899 worlds in 2002. On paper, this should have been 00:15:59.899 --> 00:16:01.860 the greatest tour of all time. A cultural event. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:03.879 You have the king of R &B and the king of hip 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:06.200 -hop. both at the peak of their powers. It should 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:07.960 have been a victory lap for both of them. Instead, 00:16:08.179 --> 00:16:09.840 it was a complete and utter train wreck. The 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.679 egos involved were just massive. There was constant 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:15.019 tension regarding billing, the lighting, who 00:16:15.019 --> 00:16:16.840 came out on stage when. You have to remember, 00:16:16.980 --> 00:16:19.500 Jay -Z is a very precise, business -minded operator. 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:22.480 Which has player. Exactly. And R. Kelly is not. 00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:25.559 Kelly is improvisational, emotional, erratic. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:28.740 It was oil and water. And it all just exploded 00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:31.799 at Madison Square Garden. The infamous... pepper 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.679 spray incident. This is legendary music industry 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:37.580 dysfunction. Kelly claimed that a member of Jay 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.159 -Z's entourage, tyrant Ty Ty Smith, pepper sprayed 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:44.210 him backstage. Kelly leaves the show. The tour 00:16:44.210 --> 00:16:47.549 implodes. And then he sues. He sues Jay -Z and 00:16:47.549 --> 00:16:50.850 the promoters for $75 million, claiming the environment 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:53.429 was unsafe and he couldn't perform. $75 million. 00:16:53.850 --> 00:16:55.669 Yeah. He really thought he could just sue his 00:16:55.669 --> 00:16:57.970 way out of a bad vibe on tour. The suit was eventually 00:16:57.970 --> 00:17:00.269 dismissed, but it marked the end of that partnership. 00:17:00.450 --> 00:17:03.629 A very public, very bizarre feud. But nothing, 00:17:03.789 --> 00:17:06.630 and I mean absolutely nothing, is as bizarre 00:17:06.630 --> 00:17:09.490 as what Kelly released starting in 2005. We have 00:17:09.490 --> 00:17:11.190 to talk about Trapped in the Closet. We must. 00:17:11.289 --> 00:17:13.740 Yeah. it's a cultural artifact that really, it 00:17:13.740 --> 00:17:15.579 opens a window into his mind like nothing else. 00:17:15.779 --> 00:17:19.059 It was described as a hip opera, which is a term. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.140 It's a musical soap opera. It started with five 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:25.980 chapters on the album TP .3 Reloaded, and it 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:28.539 just kept going and going for dozens of chapters. 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:30.900 It demonstrated his storytelling ambition, but 00:17:30.900 --> 00:17:34.160 also his profound eccentricity. It's this winding, 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:37.619 ridiculous narrative about... Infidelity, secrets, 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.299 a midget in a cabinet, a policeman, a pastor. 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:43.799 It's completely surreal. It really is. And it 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.059 became this huge cult classic. People were having 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:48.819 viewing parties for the new video chapters. It 00:17:48.819 --> 00:17:50.380 showed that he was still willing to take these 00:17:50.380 --> 00:17:53.900 massive creative risks. But looking back, doesn't 00:17:53.900 --> 00:17:56.440 it also show a man who is living in a very isolated, 00:17:56.539 --> 00:17:59.079 weird world of his own creation? It does. The 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:01.400 title itself, Trapped in the Closet, is so loaded. 00:18:01.579 --> 00:18:03.500 It's all about secrets. It's about people hiding 00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:05.819 who they are. It's about the chaos that ensues. 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.000 sues when everyone in the room is lying. That 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.180 was the world R. Kelly was building around himself 00:18:10.180 --> 00:18:12.720 in real life. He also released Happy People You 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.440 Saved Me in 2004, a double album. One disc was 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:17.339 upbeat Happy Steppers music for the cookouts, 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:19.430 and the other disc was pure gospel. Again, that 00:18:19.430 --> 00:18:22.069 duality, he was literally packaging it for you. 00:18:22.089 --> 00:18:24.809 He was telling us who he was, a man torn between 00:18:24.809 --> 00:18:27.490 the spirit and the flesh between Saturday night 00:18:27.490 --> 00:18:29.609 and Sunday morning. But while all this music 00:18:29.609 --> 00:18:32.230 was dominating, there was a dark cloud that had 00:18:32.230 --> 00:18:35.230 been hovering since the 90s. And this brings 00:18:35.230 --> 00:18:38.289 us to section four, the legal history. And we 00:18:38.289 --> 00:18:40.269 need to be very precise here because people often 00:18:40.269 --> 00:18:43.809 conflate the timelines and the different cases. 00:18:44.349 --> 00:18:46.329 Right. It's important to separate the accusations 00:18:46.329 --> 00:18:48.170 from the charges from the convictions. They are 00:18:48.170 --> 00:18:50.829 not all the same thing. So the shadows were there 00:18:50.829 --> 00:18:52.990 early. We mentioned the marriage to Aaliyah in 00:18:52.990 --> 00:18:55.509 1994. That was the first major public red flag. 00:18:55.769 --> 00:18:57.930 Then there was the Tiffany Hawkins lawsuit in 00:18:57.930 --> 00:19:00.430 the late 90s, another accusation from a minor 00:19:00.430 --> 00:19:02.769 which was settled out of court. Money made it 00:19:02.769 --> 00:19:04.869 go away. That was the playbook for a long time. 00:19:05.069 --> 00:19:07.529 But the legal inflection point, the moment where 00:19:07.529 --> 00:19:09.390 it felt like his career might actually end for 00:19:09.390 --> 00:19:12.490 the first time, was the 2002 videotape scandal. 00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:15.190 This was the tape that was anonymously sent to 00:19:15.190 --> 00:19:17.609 the Chicago Sun -Times, allegedly showing Kelly 00:19:17.609 --> 00:19:20.650 with an underage girl. This led to his indictment 00:19:20.650 --> 00:19:22.569 on multiple counts of child pornography. This 00:19:22.569 --> 00:19:24.910 wasn't a civil suit. This was criminal. This 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:26.910 was the state of Illinois versus Robert Kelly. 00:19:27.109 --> 00:19:29.269 This was facing serious prison time. And yet 00:19:29.269 --> 00:19:31.930 he kept working. The legal battle dragged on 00:19:31.930 --> 00:19:35.049 for six years. Six years of delays, motions, 00:19:35.250 --> 00:19:38.470 legal maneuvering. Finally, in 2008, he went 00:19:38.470 --> 00:19:40.789 to trial. And this is the part that many people 00:19:40.789 --> 00:19:43.509 forget or just don't understand. He was acquitted 00:19:43.509 --> 00:19:45.809 on all charges. And we really need to explain 00:19:45.809 --> 00:19:47.369 how that happened, because looking back from 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:50.269 2026, it seems impossible. The sources point 00:19:50.269 --> 00:19:52.369 directly to the effectiveness of the little man 00:19:52.369 --> 00:19:54.410 defense. Break that down for us. What exactly 00:19:54.410 --> 00:19:56.789 is the little man defense? It was a brilliant, 00:19:56.869 --> 00:20:00.009 if morally questionable, strategy used by his 00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:02.809 defense attorney at the time, Ed Genson. They 00:20:02.809 --> 00:20:05.190 didn't necessarily argue that the act on the 00:20:05.190 --> 00:20:08.210 tape was OK or that the tape was fake. They argued 00:20:08.210 --> 00:20:10.230 that you couldn't prove who was on the tape. 00:20:10.329 --> 00:20:13.119 They attacked the identification. Exactly. They 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:15.980 brought in so -called experts to analyze body 00:20:15.980 --> 00:20:18.740 markers, moles, the shadows in the room. They 00:20:18.740 --> 00:20:20.539 argued that the girl couldn't be definitively 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:23.799 identified as the specific underage victim named 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.859 in the indictment. They sowed just enough reasonable 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:28.579 doubt about the identity of the participants. 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.960 So it wasn't, I didn't do it. It was, you can't 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:35.759 prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's me 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.549 or her on that grainy video. Precisely. And in 00:20:38.549 --> 00:20:41.769 a pre -HD, pre -ubiquitous social media tracking 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:44.730 era, it worked. The jury acquitted him. And because 00:20:44.730 --> 00:20:47.490 of that acquittal, his career rebounded in a 00:20:47.490 --> 00:20:50.690 way that is just shocking to consider now. The 00:20:50.690 --> 00:20:52.569 industry took that verdict as a green light. 00:20:52.710 --> 00:20:54.430 They took it as absolution. They said, well, 00:20:54.549 --> 00:20:56.890 the court of law said he's not guilty, so let's 00:20:56.890 --> 00:20:59.440 get back to business. Two years after that trial, 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:02.140 he performed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening 00:21:02.140 --> 00:21:05.160 ceremony in South Africa. That is just wild to 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:07.220 think about. He was on the biggest world stage 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:09.900 imaginable just two years after a child pornography 00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:12.059 trial. It really speaks to the power of a hit 00:21:12.059 --> 00:21:14.200 record and the willingness of the public to look 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:16.400 the other way. It speaks to the power of the 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.519 separating art from artist argument and how for 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:21.779 a very long time people were willing to make 00:21:21.779 --> 00:21:23.859 that separation as long as the music was good. 00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:27.799 But that all changed in 2019. Surviving R. Kelly 00:21:28.519 --> 00:21:31.180 The documentary series. That was the reckoning. 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:33.680 That was the cultural shift. It amplified the 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:35.519 voices of the victims in a way that couldn't 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:38.079 be ignored any longer. It wasn't about legal 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.680 arguments or grainy tapes. It was about human 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:44.259 stories. It was parents talking about their brainwashed 00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:46.859 daughters. It was women recounting in graphic 00:21:46.859 --> 00:21:49.160 detail the abuse they suffered. And the culture 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:51.559 had changed, too. The hashtag Me Too movement 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:53.660 had happened. The collective tolerance for this 00:21:53.660 --> 00:21:57.230 kind of behavior had just evaporated. The impact 00:21:57.230 --> 00:22:00.410 was immediate and seismic. RCA Records, his lifelong 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:03.150 label, finally dropped him. Law enforcement in 00:22:03.150 --> 00:22:05.230 multiple jurisdictions opened new investigations 00:22:05.230 --> 00:22:08.049 based on the testimony in the documentary. And 00:22:08.049 --> 00:22:10.210 we saw the rise of the hashtag Meter Kelly campaign, 00:22:10.450 --> 00:22:12.930 a grassroots effort to get his music off radio 00:22:12.930 --> 00:22:15.230 and streaming playlists. And Kelly's response 00:22:15.230 --> 00:22:17.829 to this tidal wave was, well, it was characteristically 00:22:17.829 --> 00:22:21.250 defiant. He released a song called I Admit in 00:22:21.250 --> 00:22:23.839 2018, just before the documentary. I remember 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:26.960 this. A sprawling 19 -minute track. It felt like 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:29.440 a fever dream listening to it. It's a fascinating 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.480 psychological document. Because the chorus repeats, 00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:35.319 I admit it, I did it. Which on the surface sounds 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:37.339 like a full confession. Right. But you have to 00:22:37.339 --> 00:22:39.220 actually listen to the verses. What is he admitting 00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:40.859 to? He's admitting to adultery. He's admitting 00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:43.799 to being a dog, his word. He's admitting to sins 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:47.559 in a general biblical sense. But he explicitly, 00:22:47.619 --> 00:22:51.480 forcefully denies the pedophilia and the nonconsensual 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:54.440 acts. He calls out his accusers by name. He denies 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:57.240 the sex cult claims, calling them stupid. He's 00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:59.099 trying to reframe the entire narrative. He's 00:22:59.099 --> 00:23:00.880 saying, yes, I'm a sinner, but I'm not a monster. 00:23:01.019 --> 00:23:03.160 I'm not a criminal. And then there's that line, 00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:06.740 only God can mute me. It was pure defiance. It 00:23:06.740 --> 00:23:09.019 was the Pied Piper refusing to put down the flute. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:11.500 But defiance didn't work in a federal court of 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:14.420 law this time. No. The federal government stepped 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:17.779 in, using racketeering laws, the RKO Act, to 00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:20.279 paint a picture of a long -running criminal enterprise. 00:23:20.819 --> 00:23:24.500 In 2021, he was convicted in New York for racketeering 00:23:24.500 --> 00:23:26.900 and sex trafficking violations of the Mann Act. 00:23:27.309 --> 00:23:30.490 Then in 2022, a separate trial, he was convicted 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:33.150 in Chicago for producing child pornography and 00:23:33.150 --> 00:23:36.089 enticement of a minor. The sentences were heavy. 00:23:36.230 --> 00:23:38.529 They were structured to be served consecutively 00:23:38.529 --> 00:23:41.009 in some parts, concurrent in others, but the 00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:44.130 grand total comes out to roughly 31 years. Which 00:23:44.130 --> 00:23:46.950 for a man in his mid -50s at the time of sentencing 00:23:46.950 --> 00:23:49.910 is effectively a life sentence. And the fallout 00:23:49.910 --> 00:23:52.650 was swift. Awards started getting pulled back. 00:23:52.970 --> 00:23:55.250 The key to the city of Baton Rouge was officially 00:23:55.250 --> 00:23:58.000 rescinded. But here's where it gets really interesting 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.119 regarding the Grammys. The Recording Academy 00:24:00.119 --> 00:24:02.640 made a statement that they would not be stripping 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.160 him of his three awards. That's a very controversial 00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:07.880 stance. What was their logic? Their logic, publicly, 00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:10.400 was that the awards recognized the art that was 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:12.700 created and judged at that specific moment in 00:24:12.700 --> 00:24:14.940 time, and that history shouldn't be rewritten 00:24:14.940 --> 00:24:18.200 or erased. They argue that I Believe I Can Fly 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.240 was judged to be the best R &B song of 1997, 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:23.859 regardless of what the writer did 20 years later. 00:24:24.539 --> 00:24:26.759 It's a purist argument that really doubles down 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:29.619 on the separation of art and artist. It's a debate 00:24:29.619 --> 00:24:31.900 that will probably never be settled. Which brings 00:24:31.900 --> 00:24:35.220 us to the present day, Section 5, Recent Developments. 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:37.700 We are looking at sources up to and including 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:41.740 2025. R. Kelly is currently incarcerated at FCI 00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:44.279 Butner Medium in North Carolina. And he is not 00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:47.140 going quietly into that good night. In 2024, 00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:49.920 reports surfaced that Kelly and his lawyer, Jennifer 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:52.480 Bonjean, had petitioned the United States Supreme 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:54.839 Court to review the Chicago child pornography 00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:57.359 case. Wow. All the way to the Supreme Court. 00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:59.359 They are arguing for a review that could, they 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:01.680 hope, potentially knock 20 years off his sentence. 00:25:01.940 --> 00:25:05.259 It's a huge legal long shot, a real Hail Mary, 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:07.940 but it shows they are still fighting. But aside 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:09.660 from the legal maneuvering, there was a major 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:12.539 health scare just recently. in June of 2025. 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:15.079 This is a very serious incident that highlights 00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:18.299 the grim reality of his life now. On June 13, 00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:22.000 2025, Kelly was rushed from the prison to a hospital 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:25.039 following what was described as an apparent overdose 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:27.839 or medical emergency. And the details from the 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:30.240 attorneys are pretty alarming. They claim he 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:32.359 was placed in solitary confinement on June 10, 00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:35.140 given anxiety medication, and then the dosage 00:25:35.140 --> 00:25:37.799 was increased. They say he got dizzy, lost his 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:40.230 vision, and collapsed in his cell. And when he 00:25:40.230 --> 00:25:42.390 got to Duke University Hospital, reports from 00:25:42.390 --> 00:25:44.509 his legal team indicated he was diagnosed with 00:25:44.509 --> 00:25:47.509 blood clots in his lungs and legs. That is life 00:25:47.509 --> 00:25:49.950 threatening. A pulmonary embolism is no joke. 00:25:50.089 --> 00:25:52.349 And yet he was returned to prison on June 15th, 00:25:52.349 --> 00:25:54.730 apparently against medical advice. His lawyers 00:25:54.730 --> 00:25:57.250 immediately filed emergency motions citing mistreatment 00:25:57.250 --> 00:26:00.000 and a lack of proper care. It really paints a 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.539 picture of a desperate, chaotic situation inside 00:26:02.539 --> 00:26:05.619 FCI Butner. It's a long, long way from the VIP 00:26:05.619 --> 00:26:08.180 section of the club, from charter jets and sold 00:26:08.180 --> 00:26:11.680 -out arenas. It is. It shows that while the music 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:14.759 world has moved on, the human drama of R. Kelly's 00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.359 life is still very much active and volatile. 00:26:18.460 --> 00:26:20.920 Which leads us to the big, thorny question in 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:24.119 our final section, Section 6, the artistry and 00:26:24.119 --> 00:26:27.670 legacy. How do we process all of this? We have 00:26:27.670 --> 00:26:29.690 to talk about the music itself, stripped of the 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:31.930 context for just a second, to understand why 00:26:31.930 --> 00:26:34.369 he was so big in the first place. Musically, 00:26:34.450 --> 00:26:37.640 he was a bridge. He was a conduit. He connected 00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:40.579 the old school soul of his heroes, Donny Hathaway, 00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:43.480 Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, with the new aggressive 00:26:43.480 --> 00:26:46.039 hip hop aesthetic. He brought the church to the 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:48.359 club and the club to the bedroom. The church 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:50.119 to the club. That's a perfect way to put it. 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.940 His method was unique, too. Because of the dyslexia 00:26:52.940 --> 00:26:55.220 we mentioned, he recorded from the gut. It was 00:26:55.220 --> 00:26:57.859 all improvisational. He felt the music rather 00:26:57.859 --> 00:27:00.299 than reading it. And he had this uncanny ability 00:27:00.299 --> 00:27:02.819 to write songs that felt completely universal. 00:27:03.180 --> 00:27:06.299 I Believe I Can Fly is a global anthem. Ignition. 00:27:06.740 --> 00:27:09.619 Remix is to this day a party staple. And then 00:27:09.619 --> 00:27:11.720 there's the nickname he gave himself, the Pied 00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:14.519 Piper of R &B. In hindsight, that moniker is 00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:18.500 just, it's chilling. Yeah. Originally, it was 00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:20.519 meant to mean he was leading people to the music, 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:22.380 right? Like everyone follows him to the dance 00:27:22.380 --> 00:27:24.200 floor when the song comes on. Exactly. It was 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:27.680 about charisma and influence. But now. When you 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:29.539 view it through the lens of the grooming allegations 00:27:29.539 --> 00:27:32.799 and the convictions, the Pied Piper reads as 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.220 a man luring children away from their homes with 00:27:35.220 --> 00:27:39.059 a captivating song. It's a grim, grim irony that 00:27:39.059 --> 00:27:41.920 he chose that name for himself. It feels like 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:44.279 a confession he made decades before he was caught. 00:27:44.539 --> 00:27:47.099 And yet, despite all of this, the convictions, 00:27:47.339 --> 00:27:49.779 the 31 -year prison sentence, the chilling nicknames, 00:27:49.779 --> 00:27:52.099 the documentaries, we come back to where we started 00:27:52.099 --> 00:27:54.910 this conversation. Billboard magazine ranked 00:27:54.910 --> 00:27:57.109 him the number nine greatest R &B artist of all 00:27:57.109 --> 00:28:01.369 time in 2025. That ranking is the crux of the 00:28:01.369 --> 00:28:03.690 entire latency problem. The music industry cannot 00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.029 erase the statistics. It can't pretend he didn't 00:28:06.029 --> 00:28:09.130 exist. He sold over 75 million records worldwide. 00:28:09.490 --> 00:28:11.849 He wrote and produced hundreds of hits for himself 00:28:11.849 --> 00:28:14.250 and others. He defined the sound of R &B for 00:28:14.250 --> 00:28:16.849 two decades. You cannot tell the story of modern 00:28:16.849 --> 00:28:20.109 R &B without R. Kelly. You can't. The foundation 00:28:20.109 --> 00:28:23.250 of so much modern R &B and even pop is built 00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:25.250 on his production style, his vocal arrangements. 00:28:25.549 --> 00:28:28.529 But you also cannot tell his story without the 00:28:28.529 --> 00:28:30.849 abuse, without the crimes, without the victims. 00:28:31.069 --> 00:28:34.230 The two are inextricably linked. It's the ultimate 00:28:34.230 --> 00:28:37.809 test of separating art from artists. Can you? 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:40.759 perhaps more importantly, should you? It's become 00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:42.799 a deeply personal question for every listener, 00:28:42.900 --> 00:28:45.740 hasn't it? For some, hearing Ignition remix at 00:28:45.740 --> 00:28:48.240 a wedding is just nostalgia. They hear the bounce, 00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:50.420 they remember the party, and they can make that 00:28:50.420 --> 00:28:52.940 separation. For others, it's an endorsement of 00:28:52.940 --> 00:28:54.859 a predator. They hear the voice of a man who 00:28:54.859 --> 00:28:56.859 hurt children, and it's impossible to ignore. 00:28:57.160 --> 00:28:59.740 The music remains embedded in the culture, even 00:28:59.740 --> 00:29:02.500 if the man himself has been muted. So as we wrap 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:04.819 up this deep dive, what we're left with is this 00:29:04.819 --> 00:29:08.069 profoundly tragic trajectory. a prodigy born 00:29:08.069 --> 00:29:10.049 into poverty and trauma on the south side of 00:29:10.049 --> 00:29:12.690 Chicago, a boy who watched his first love drown 00:29:12.690 --> 00:29:15.309 and found his voice in the subway tunnels, a 00:29:15.309 --> 00:29:17.589 man who conquered the music world, wrote hits 00:29:17.589 --> 00:29:19.789 for Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, and 00:29:19.789 --> 00:29:22.230 then used that immense power and status to exploit 00:29:22.230 --> 00:29:24.430 and abuse the most vulnerable among his fans. 00:29:24.650 --> 00:29:27.569 And now he sits in a cell in North Carolina, 00:29:27.710 --> 00:29:30.549 his health failing, his reputation in absolute 00:29:30.549 --> 00:29:33.490 tatters, while his songs still play on the radio 00:29:33.490 --> 00:29:35.920 somewhere in the world at this very moment. I 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.299 want to leave you, our listener, with a final 00:29:38.299 --> 00:29:41.319 provocative thought. Think about that I Admit 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:45.079 song and think about that 2025 Billboard ranking. 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:48.279 In this digital age where everything is archived 00:29:48.279 --> 00:29:51.920 and accessible, can we ever truly delete a legacy 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.500 that was this influential, this deeply woven 00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:57.059 into the fabric of our culture? Or does the music 00:29:57.059 --> 00:29:59.480 itself serve as a permanent, uncomfortable artifact 00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:02.680 of the era that created and enabled him? Is the 00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:05.680 music a monument to his talent? Or is it evidence 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:07.859 of our complicity? It's a question that doesn't 00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:10.200 have an easy answer, but it's one we absolutely 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:12.319 have to keep asking. Thank you for listening 00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:13.859 to The Deep Dive. We'll catch you on the next 00:30:13.859 --> 00:30:13.980 one.