The Drop on R Kelly

The R & B singer R.Kelly is being investigated by the police of Georgia (United States) for a series of accusations of physical and psychological abuse to their various partners. Although the artist, 52, has long denied this type of incriminations, a new documentary series  about him – Surviving R. Kelly – gives details that the authorities could not avoid. 

In one of the chapters, Asante McGee, one of the alleged victims, walks through one of the interpreter’s expropriations while claiming to have seen women being held against her will.The illegitimate deprivation of liberty is precisely one of the charges with which the prosecution seeks to impute the singer , according to  sources quoted by the news portal  The Blast.For this they have called to declare Joycelyn Savage, another of the alleged victims of the artist, 23 years old, who still maintains a relationship with Kelly. Savage has always defended the innocence of the singer and has assured that if he is with him it is by his own will. Her parents, however, affirm that the young woman has been “brainwashed” and they have been denouncing for months the isolation to which she is subjected. In fact, they participate in the documentary broadcast by the Lifetime channel.

In turn, R. Kelly’s representative, Don Russell, has also been reported by the Savage family, for threats and intimidation. According to the girl’s father, last Monday, Russell wrote him a message before the premiere of Surviving R. Kelly stating “that it would be better for him and his family if the docuserie was not issued.”According to the police documents obtained by The Blast , Russell accused Savage of spreading false information in the series and assured that if they continued with the intention of issuing it, they “would be forced to provide information that denies it. (…) Something that would ruin his reputation, his business and his family, since he would show him as a liar. ” 

But Georgia is not the only state seeking evidence against Kelly. According to the news portal TMZ announced that the prosecutor of Cook County (Chicago, Illinois), Kim Foxx, asked other victims of the singer to come forward and report their abuses. According to the prosecutor, the statements in Surviving R. Kelly  are “deeply disturbing”, so she wants to encourage those women who were submitted by the interpreter to tell their experiences.”You can not investigate these allegations without the cooperation of victims and witnesses, we can not seek justice without you,” Foxx said. According to the same web portal, one victim has already arrived and the families of two others to give a statement.  

R. Kelly was one of the biggest stars of  R & B in the 90s , after the basketball player Michael Jordan asked him to compose a song for the soundtrack of the movie Space Jam . With the1998 single  I believe I can fly won three Grammy awards and achieved number two on the North American charts and number one in Europe. Throughout his career of over 25 years he has sold 60 million records, becoming one of the 40 most successful singers in the United States.

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The first accusations of this nature against the artist emerged in July 2017. In a news on theBuzzFeed website, the singer was accused of having allegedly detained half a dozen girls, between 17 and 21 years old, to whom he subjected a kind of “sexual cult” in their residences in Chicago and Atlanta. Then, several women and relatives of other victims maintained that the singer exercised a severe control over them,  their phone calls , their diet, the clothes they wear, how they should behave or the time they go to bed. The women even had to ask permission to go to the bathroom or leave the rooms they have assigned.

Then, a police investigation was carried out in the singer’s residences ,  but they found no evidence to continue with the complaint.According to the authorities, the girls who lived with the artist were of legal age – in the State of Illinois, where one of the girls comes from, the majority is 17 years old – and the relationships were consensual.

But these are not the only accusations that weigh on the singer. In 1995 he married the singer Aaliyah when he was only 15 years old and in 2008 he faced several charges of child pornography after recording a sexual video with a girl of 14. He was acquitted.