R. Kelly Is Facing Some Serious Time In Prison
R. Kelly won't be turning back the hands of time any time soon. The disgraced musician and producer was once flying high, credited with being one of the pioneers of modern-day R&B and hip-hop. The singer, whose birth name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, proclaimed himself the "pied piper of R&B," which has a much more sinister connotation now, given his status as a convicted sex offender and child abuser. "I started calling myself the Pied Piper when I started using the flute sound in my music," he explained to GQ in 2016. "I was the Pied Piper. You know, blew a flute."
Kelly initially faced trial in 2008 for possession of child pornography, but was acquitted of all charges. The harrowing docu-series "Surviving R. Kelly" was released in 2019. It laid bare the horrors of his crimes, the full extent of the harm he caused, and the dark secrets Kelly tried to hide.
Following 25 years of accusations by dozens of women and underage girls, Kelly was finally convicted for his egregious acts. In September 2021, he was found guilty of eight counts of sex trafficking and one of racketeering. "No one deserves what they experienced at his hands or the threats and harassment they faced in telling the truth about what happened to them," Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, the acting Brooklyn U.S. attorney, told reporters, via The New York Times. The musician's legal team vowed to launch an appeal. However, R. Kelly is facing some serious time in prison.
R. Kelly faces 25 years or more in prison
What does R. Kelly's guilty verdict really mean for his future? Well, his career is over, as he's facing some serious time in prison. However, he has not been dealing with incarceration well so far. Immediately following his conviction, Kelly was placed on suicide watch. The award-winning musician has gone from "Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece," to Pruno, chain line, Ramen noodles in his jail cell. And, if the Feds get their way, he will be dodging locks in socks for a very long time.
Per TMZ, prosecutors argue that Kelly's crimes are heinous enough to warrant a sentence "in excess of 25 years." They're drawing attention to his history of targeting and grooming minors, citing the multiple rapes he committed against Aaliyah as one illustration. The prosecution stated that Kelly "began to sexually abuse her when she was just 12 or 13 years old," and then married her in an attempt to cover up his crimes and escape prosecution.
In an interview with "Inside Edition" from 1997, the then-18-year-old denied ever having married Kelly. "No, I'm not married, Robert's doing his thing, and I'm doing my thing," Aaliyah said. "There's nothing there, nothing there at all," she insisted. However, during the trial, it came to light that she and Kelly had been married by a Baptist minister in Clerk County on August 31, 1994. The singer tragically died in a plane crash in August 2001. She was just 22 years old.