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R Kelly brushes off renewed reports of child abuse
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 18 December 2013
R Kelly has brushed off renewed controversy about past accusations of him sexually abusing underage girls, following an interview with American journalist Jim DeRogatis in the Village Voice this week.
As Kelly promotes his latest album, ‘Black Panties’, journalist Jessica Hooper interviewed DeRogatis, who is based in Kelly’s home town of Chicago and first broke the story about allegations that the singer engaged in sexual activity with underage girls for the Chicago Sun-Times almost fifteen years ago.
The interview followed the publication of a number of new articles by DeRogatis about Kelly back in July, which included a detailed timeline of accusations and legal proceedings against the star, and questioned the appropriateness of Kelly headlining the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago.
In the new interview, DeRogatis details numerous lawsuits brought against Kelly alleging sexual abuse, all of which the singer settled out of court.
He adds that he spoke to many of Kelly’s victims for his various reports, saying: “I think in the end [I spoke to] two dozen women with various level of details. Obviously the women who were part of the hundreds of pages of lawsuits – [there is a] hell of a lot of detail. There were girls who just told one simple story, and there were a lot of girls who told stories that lasted hours, which still make me sick to my stomach. It never was one girl on one tape. Or one girl and Aaliyah [to whom Kelly was briefly married while she was underage]”.
DeRogatis concedes that the one time Kelly was tried in court on criminal charges relating to the sex abuse allegations – in particular the alleged creation of a sextape said to feature Kelly and an underage girl – the singer was found not guilty, without testimony from either him or the girl alleged to appear in the tape. But, while some use this acquittal as an indication that Kelly is innocent of all the accusations made against him, DeRogatis does not agree.
“He was tried on very narrow grounds. He’s never had his day in court as a rapist”, said the reporter. “It’s fifteen years in the past now, but this record exists. You have to make a choice, as a listener, if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment. And you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our lifeblood. This matters”.
As the DeRogatis interview went viral on social media, Kelly was asked to comment during an interview with US radio station V-103. The singer went with a vague response, saying: “Well I feel like I got the football man, I’m running towards the touchdown and stopping and looking back, mess around, I’ll get tackled”.
Not finished with the metaphors, he added: “When you get on top of anything, it’s very windy. It’s about holding your balance once you get up there… You have to spiritually be a climber”.
Read the full interview with DeRogatis here.
