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R. Kelly arriving for a court hearing in Chicago in May 2019.

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

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Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

R. Kelly arriving for a court hearing in Chicago in May 2019.

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

Editor’s note: This essay contains allegations of sexual assault and physical abuse.

On Wednesday, singer, songwriter and producer R. Testimony is set to begin at a Brooklyn courthouse in the first of two federal trials against Kelly. In two such indictments in New York and Illinois, the one-time R&B king is accused of abusing 11 girls and women over more than two decades; making child pornography; Quietly paying money to silence the alleged victims; and specifically building a criminal enterprise to “hunt young women and adolescents”.

Additionally, New York prosecutors want to acknowledge what they say is evidence that Kelly sexually and physically abused girls and women, sexually abused a boy, and bribed until 1991. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has consistently denied allegations that he abused anyone.

Often, when I’ve told people I’m covering a New York lawsuit, they’re confused. There have been allegations surrounding Kelly for more than 25 years, and so they ask me: Wasn’t he arrested years ago? Yes: He was recently arrested in July 2019, and has been in custody for two years, awaiting trial. But they may also be thinking about her first major trial in 2008 — and those allegations, and that trial, add to some of the current charges.

In 2002, in his hometown of Chicago, Kelly was indicted on multiple child pornography charges after an infamous sex tape aired: it featured the singer having sex and urinating with a woman, about whom In the U.S., prosecutors said he was about 14 years old at the time. A full six years later, Kelly went on trial and was acquitted of all charges. The girl who was believed to be the girl on tape and her parents refused to testify.

That 2008 trial is heavily involved in some of Illinois’ current charges, including allegations that Kelly and members of her circle bullied the girl and her father, and persuaded them to lie to both the police and a grand jury. . 14 other witnesses who refused to testify, despite identifying the girl, seem to have influenced several jurors to acquit Kelly. (The same woman, now in her thirties, said in 2019 that she is cooperating with federal investigators.)

Back then, it seemed that much of the pop-culture conversation was primarily about Kelly and her perceived tendencies and behaviors, and not so much about anyone who might have been hurt. In some ways, the culture has changed since Kelly was last tested. Many fans today are far less inclined to ignore what they see as problematic material or context in an artist’s work – whether it relates to racism, sexism, unfair power dynamics or homosexuality.

The intervening 13 years have also seen dogmatic, harsh reporting about Kelly, including Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly, a book by east Chicago Sun-Times journalist and music critic Jim DeRogatis, and alive r kelly, A six-part documentary starring Dream Hampton to air on Lifetime. Both were released in the middle of the #MeToo movement in 2019.

In the early days of #MeToo, many of the leading accusers were white women. But Kelly-related projects apparently focused mostly on black girls and women who were allegedly harmed.

As those projects were being developed, a #MuteRKelly movement — founded by two black women, Kennett Barnes and Oronike Odelle — gathered steam in an effort to pressure major entertainment companies to sever their ties with Kelly. . By writing about #MuteRKelly, Washington Post Columnist Christine Emba quoted Malcolm X’s 1962 speech: “The most humiliated person in America is the black woman. The most vulnerable person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”

In March 2018 Barnes insisted in an interview to Derogatis for BuzzFeed News: “We don’t care about black girls. If R. Kelly were white, every civil rights leader would march on every street in this country.” If the girls were white, every feminist group would rage in a pile of cat hats for marching against them. The bottom line is that R. Kelly and her victims are the perfect storm for those we don’t care about We protect black men who are problematic in the black community, and we spare black girls in all communities. Essentially, he’s the ultimate example of a stalker going after the most vulnerable that anyone cares about. Not there.”

A few months later, however, Kelly’s management called #MuteRKelly “a public lynching”, noting that “since America was born, black men and women have been lynched for having sex or being charged with it.” Has been done.” At the time, #MeToo founder and activist Tarana Burke told me, “The reality of lynching in America is so, so painful, and so real. It’s not public lynching. It’s a call for public accountability.” (Also, in several cases Kelly’s accusers have said that they were underage girls, not women, when they began sexual contact with her.)

Burke continued in a 2018 conversation, “We’ve brought charges against R. Kelly for 24 years, and he’s gone unpunished.” “We’re looking for in our community and outside, there is some accountability of corporations that support this man, who has a 24-year history of sexual violence against black and brown girls across the country.” (Later that year, Burke was one of the victims of a gun threat called to an advance screening. alive r kelly in New York; Kelly’s former manager, Donnell Russell, has been charged with making this threat. His case is ongoing.)

To a large extent, #MuteRKelly succeeded, albeit years after Kelly’s commercial and creative peak, and sometimes in highly deserved ways. In May 2018, for example, Spotify removed Kelly from its playlists, the way many listeners use the service instead to look for particular artists or songs. If you actively search for Kelly’s music on Spotify, however, it still exists, as written by other artists such as Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Ciara, Missy Elliot and others. and/or created songs. Audience considers problematic: Michael Jackson.

There has been one notable exception: Most of the music by Kelly’s protagonist Aaliyah — whom he married in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27 — isn’t on Spotify or other streaming services at all. But at an interesting time, Aaliyah’s uncle and former manager of both artists, Barry Hankerson, announced a few days before the Kelly trial began that he was making his recording catalog available for streaming services. New York prosecutors refer to Aaliyah as “Jane Doe #1” in their indictment, for which they say Kelly and associates bribed a public official to produce a fake ID prior to their wedding.

In January 2019, Kelly’s longtime record label RCA and her parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, removed her from their artist roster after increasing pressure from #MuteRKelly. But that decision, apparently, was made in view of alive r kelly The broadcast came 16 years after their last big chart hit, 2003’s “Ignition (Remix)”. Furthermore, RCA and Sony have never publicly admitted to leaving Kelly.

Long before the most recent wave of accusations and reporting, black and brown voices were calling for reckoning. almost two decades ago alive r kelly, for a long time Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Mary Mitchell wrote several articles asking why alleged victims were being dismissed or ignored, and why so many Chicagoans were on Kelly’s side.

Nevertheless, many fans liked him very much. Some fellow cast members denied the allegations and continued to work with them. And comedians like Dave Chappelle joked about the alleged Kelly tape and its contents.

after the first broadcast of alive r kelly, Then-new York Times Culture editor (and now NPR affiliate) Aisha Harris wrote about how the allegations against Kelly became pop-culture joke fodder: “Over the years,” she wrote, “people who laughed at Kelly were able to ignore the allegations against her.” were able.”

In retrospect, that particular spin cycle is reminiscent of what happened to Britney Spears in the same era. (She was one of R. Kelly’s labelmates at Jive and then RCA, and Kelly wrote and produced her own song, “Outrageous”, released in 2004.) Spears’ Public Conflict, which was a joke and a joke for 24/7 Became little more than grist. The multitude of gossip blogs and cable channels coincided with Kelly’s Chicago trial. The girl at the center of that trial, like Spears, became largely a punchline.

Many of the women who have accused Kelly of sexual, physical and/or psychological abuse say that when they met him, they were, like the girl allegedly featured on the infamous tape , was a teenager striving to become a professional musician, and hoped that the king of R&B would help him chart his music career.

In the music industry, it’s a familiar story. Young men strive to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry; If they do succeed, it is often at least partly with the help of older male mentors. Young women attempting to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry can also enlist the help of older male mentors; After all, there are still far more successful men in business than women. But sometimes, instead of being given guidance or opportunities, they are developed into sexual conquests – and those dreams fade.

The post 13 Years After The Last R. Kelly Trial, The Culture Has Changed : NPR appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

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