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R kelly number one key11/8/2022 Like Ludacris last year when he name-dropped Kelly in a song previewed during his spotty internet-riddled Verzuz battle with Nelly, saying, “I love R. Kelly worked with nearly every artist of the last quarter century, including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, Diddy, Mariah Carey and more. Kelly can answer for his abuse away from the public eye and the industry that he once made his bedroom of horrors. The verdict, a landmark moment in the era of #MeToo, especially for Black women, didn’t feel loud or boisterous. Kelly could potentially spend the rest of his life - or at least the next chapter of his life - behind bars for crimes not even five lifetimes could erase. In his case, his indiscretions were too great and documented to separate the two. That generation of fans, this writer included, had to come to grips with our thoughts regarding Kelly, the artist, and Kelly, the man. An entire generation has seen every single part of Kelly’s story and the evolving societal conversations that made what he did so corrupt. That’s why it was impossible to feel relieved or joyous about this verdict. He even paraded himself as “The Pied Piper of R&B.” In European folklore, the Piper and his magic pipe would lure children to leave their homes and follow him once citizens refused to pay him for his vermin-ridding talents. The 14-year-old happened to be former R&B artist Sparkle’s niece, who was one of Kelly’s previous protegés. Or the infamous tape of a man widely assumed to be the singer engaging in sexual activity and urinating on an underage Black girl. There was, of course, his illegal marriage to a then-15-year-old Aaliyah while he, her producer, was 27 and was behind naming the R&B starlet’s first album Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number. Young Black girls and women and boys were the collateral damage for the music we played in churches, family gatherings, homecomings and our bedrooms. This intense, rarefied level of fame and wealth allowed for many in his orbit to overlook the atrocities he was committing.īut the signs were always there. Kelly made a lot of people a lot of money, including himself. That success made his downfall all the more gripping - and slow. His box score of accomplishments as one of R&B’s crown jewels consists of monster singles, successful albums and his coveted songwriting. There’s no denying how brightly Kelly’s star once burned. Kelly, Michael Jackson - are they being ‘lynched’?
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