We have all read horror story after horror story about R. Kelly.
He allegedly seduces much younger women, isolates them, grooms them to accept abuse, and keeps them captive using violence and starvation to control them.
Multiple women who have come forward have also accused him of having groomed some women for this role since they were underage.
R. Kelly is being sued for sexual battery and false imprisonment .
Additionally, the #TimesUp movement has called to #MuteRKelly in an effort to force him out of the entertainment industry.
R. Kelly has now responded in a truly bizarre way.
Early on Monday, out of nowhere, he dropped a 19 minute song .
The song is titled “I Admit.” In it, he seems to beg people to pity him. He also mocks the accusations against him and laments that they are endangering his career. He also name-drops an investigative reporter.
Take a look at these truly bizarre lyrics.
It begins with his sob story The accusations against R. Kelly aren’t about him being “imperfect.” They’re about him allegedly abusing and terrorizing women and underage girls. Childhood struggles are sad, but not an excuse for monstrous deeds as an adult.
R. Kelly tries to minimize the criticisms against him Sleeping with fans is fine. Allegedly keeping them locked up and isolated while punishing them with violence and starvation is not.
Here’s the chorus While many people would be happy to hear him say these words in a deposition, interrogation room, or a courtroom, as a chorus, it’s mocking his accusers. And that is intentional.
Here, he sounds like he’s bragging R. Kelly will seem to brag about his sex life more than once. You might think that a man accused of running a sex cult of brainwashed women would present a humble face to the world to avoid suspicion. R. Kelly does not.
He again wants listeners to feel sorry for him Difficulty reading — whether it’s illiteracy or dyslexia — is definitely a sympathetic struggle. But this seems like a transparent ploy to elicit sympathy in the face of the harrowing accusations against him.
And now he’s back to bragging Perhaps he hopes to convince listeners that if he is “confessing” (these sound more like boasts) to these actions, surely he has not done anything worse.
And now the classic “I settled it but I’m innocent” Imagine being R. Kelly’s lawyer — which is already pretty awful — and then waking up on a Monday morning to hear that your client dropped a 19-minute song titled “I Admit.”
Now he brings up the devil Did anyone else picture R. Kelly just speaking to his own reflection when he mentioned chatting with the devil? Regardless, it’s nice to hear that canceled shows are getting under his skin.
He compares himself to Bill Cosby One, nobody’s mad that he “has girlfriends.” It’s how he allegedly abuses them — and, of course, the alleged ages of some of them — that has people waning to imprison him. Just like, people hope, convicted sexual predator Bill Cosby will soon be in prison.
And then he calls the accusations a “conspiracy” Some people are eager to believe in absurd conspiracy theories. Especially if believing it will make them feel righteous, not guilty, when they listen to some song they happen to enjoy.
He really doesn’t like being called a pedophile Though the word “pedophile” does sometimes get misused, when a grown man has sex with a child, that is usually the word for it. Reminder that, well before the sex cult stuff, R. Kelly was indicted on 21 charges of child pornography.
Here, he makes an almost direct reference to #MuteRKelly #MuteRKelly is a campaign launched by #TimesUp, a group of women in Hollywood who are working to turn #MeToo momentum into real, lasting change by forcing sexual predators out of the industry. R. Kelly makes a lot of sense as a target.
Now he brings up Wendy Williams … It sounds like he’s saying that Wendy Williams is only slamming him for his alleged sexual and physical abuse because he never had sex with her. And is he saying that he was entrapped into urinating on an underage girl?
Yet another plea for pity This time, he’s whining about being broke. His net worth is estimated to be in the ballpark of $150 million.
He thinks that the devil is making other men call him out He asks why other black men would criticize him. Spoiler alert: it’s probably because they believe that he’s a sexual predator.
Here, the lyrics get upsetting R. Kelly describing being sexually abused is definitely sad. Child sex abuse is horrifying and can ruin a person’s life. it is not in any way, however, an excuse for that child to one day become an adult who commits sex abuse or other crimes.
Again, he refers to the #MuteRKelly campaign See that part at the end? Spotify booted him from their service. There’s a line between “just running a business” and helping to funnel money to a sexual predator, and it looks like public pressure made Spotify make a responsible choice.
He calls the allegations against him “absurd” Please bear in mind that the majority of these allegations come from women who have come forward with their firsthand accounts of his alleged abuse. These are women with stories of how they were drawn in to his sex cult and how they broke free.
R. Kelly tries to make it all about the men He is accused of using starvation as one of the punishments to keep his women obedient, but he tries to deflect by accusing one girl’s father of somehow being to blame. Newsflash: if a girl’s father deliberately put her in harm’s way, that just means that she had two awful men in her life.
He then … warns parents to keep their daughters away? That’s … actually good advice. After reading the stories of women who’ve described what it was like with R. Kelly, it sounds like everyone who is not an investigator or prosecutor needs to stay very far away from R. Kelly.
He says that he’s tired of the accusations It seems that a lot of very bad men don’t like hearing stories in the media about how bad they are. Who knew?
He then seems to suggest that the dictionary proves his innocence? “Cult” is a very subjective term. Sexual slavery is a lot simpler. If you’re coercing someone into sexual obedience, it sounds like you have a sex slave. Grooming a woman over the course of months before beginning to abuse her does not make it better.
He says that he’s like Hugh Hefner, actually Hugh Hefner was blasted as a creep, before and after his death. He also had himself buried beside Marilyn Monroe, a woman whose nudes he published without her permission.
He also blasts an investigative reporter by name Name-dropping an investigative reporter reeks of desperation and maybe fear. But those lyrics seem like a veiled threat.
He begs his family to believe in him Trust him, R. Kelly implores them. Don’t trust the multiple women who describe his alleged abuse.
He says that he tours now for “protection” In other words, he wants his fans to buy his music. This is a good reminder that streaming or purchasing his music or attending one of his shows means that you are financially contributing to R. Kelly. Can you live with that?
R. Kelly hates the idea of losing his career It’s not an “assumption” if it comes from multiple firsthand accounts, my guy. It’s “accusations.”