…or not.
Today I will be sharing an excerpt of an article I read on R. Kelly and his appeal. The insightful piece was again written by a young woman by the name of Christiana Mbakwe. Read and enjoy.
But most of all, think about it.
WHY DOES ANYONE STILL THINK IT'S OK TO LISTEN TO R. KELLY?
R. Kelly is one of the most successful R&B artists of our time. He’s sold 54 million records globally, had a career that spans three decades and penned classic records that have provided the soundtrack for some of our best moments.
But while folks were bumping and grinding to his hits, other things were going bump in the night.
In 1994, R. Kelly married a 15-year-old girl named Aaliyah Haughton. The marriage was eventually annulled. They never addressed the union publicly and, consequently, it seemed like R&B folklore. Two years later R. Kelly was sued for $10 million by Tiffany “Tia” Hawkins.
According to the lawsuit, Hawkins started having sex with R. Kelly when she was 15 and he was 24. After the "relationship" ended, Hawkins (then aged 18) slit her wrists in a suicide attempt. A friend of Hawkins alleged that she engaged in a threesome with Kelly and Hawkins while she was 16. The super star settled the lawsuit.
In 2000, Barry Hankerson resigned as R. Kelly’s manager. In a letter to R. Kelly’s attorney, Hankerson states he believes Kelly needs psychiatric help due to his proclivity toward pursuing underage girls.
In 2001, a young woman from Chicago named Tracy Sampson sued R. Kelly. In the lawsuit, it’s alleged she lost her virginity to Kelly at 17, was treated like a “sex object” and was pressured by Kelly into receiving oral sex from a girl she didn’t want to have sex with. He settled the lawsuit. The next year the singer was sued by another young woman from Chicago, named Patrice Jones. Jones estimated that she had sex with Kelly between 20 and 30 times before her 17th birthday. Jones states in her suit that R. Kelly impregnated her while she was underage and then arranged for one of his employees to take her to have an abortion. R. Kelly settled the lawsuit.
In June 2002, R Kelly was indicted on child pornography charges on account of a widely circulated sex tape where he was seen urinating on a young woman. Following a controversial trial where neither Kelly nor his alleged victim took the stand, Kelly was acquitted. Although prosecutors could not definitively say when the tape was made (or if it was indeed the alleged victim), multiple family members state it’s the alleged victim. A friend of the alleged victim claimed the tape was created in the summer after eighth grade.
You can read the rest of the article here: R. Kelly
For more thoughts, feelings, and words from this talented young woman here is her information.
Twitter: Christiana Mbakwe
Tumblr: Christiana Mbakwe
Written by Lucius Black 2013
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