R. Kelly is a name that has been in the headlines for decades now. The popularity that has gained him millions of dollars has now become the source of his downfall. The most controversial singer and music producer have garnered a lot of haters, and the criticism is running high now.
The music world star has a lot of sides, and each side is criticized equally. This criticism is the reason his name has kept deteriorating. Does the singer still earn millions, or has his fame now dwindled entirely?
R. Kelly Net Worth
R. Kelly is a singer known for his natural talent and hit albums. He has earned millions of dollars because of this extraordinary talent of his. But even after earning these many dollars, Kelly couldn’t manage them. He has been one of the most popular singing sensations once, and yet he has been unable to keep this status for long.
As of 2022, R. Kelly is known to have a net worth of negative $2 million despite his millions of dollars in earnings. Kelly is in massive debt now and has to pay a lot of dollars in taxes as well. He is a notorious spender and has poor money management issues.
Aside from being an overspender, Kelly is infamous for his escapades. He has lost a whopping amount paying people to hide those escapades, and as a result, he is now in millions of dollars of debt. His choice of extra-luxurious objects has contributed to his bankruptcy as well.
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R. Kelly’s Career
R. Kelly is a famous singer and music producer who has toured multiple countries and made millions doing so. He has contributed to multiple music events and has made many appearances in TV shows. He is one of the most successful musicians of all time and yet the most hated man.
As for Kelly’s career, he began his musical journey when he was just 8 years old. He claimed that he has always known that he wants to be a musician. He then started his journey in the early 1990s and started to work with various music labels. Kelly recorded several musical albums, which continued to make the audience fall in love with him. Kelly has even sung a song for the infamous Michael Jackson and won several awards for it.
In the late 1990s, Kelly started to play professional basketball to fulfill his dream. He even launched his label in the same year, despite playing professional basketball, since he couldn’t let go of the music industry. Kelly started recording music albums again, and his albums started appearing on billboards for months after their release. Since then, R Kelly has become a public figure, and his music career became undefeatable until the public started to witness his predatory nature.
R. Kelly’s Family Life
Robert Kelly’s father was absent all his life while his mother was a famous singer and music artist. He has three siblings, Carey, Theresa, and Bruce Kelly. Kelly has two divorces behind him and has three children with his second wife, Andrea Lee. Jay and Robert Kelly Jr. are his sons, while he named his daughter Joann in honor of his mother, Joann Kelly.
Kelly first married Aaliyah, who was the niece of his fellow singer, in 1994 when she was just 15. Despite his reluctance in describing his relationship with her, the reality of his marriage to Aaliyah came into the limelight when her parents decided to annul the marriage. Kelly had to pay hefty compensation and bear the public whiplash of marrying a minor when he himself was over 25.
His second marriage to Andrea Lee in 1996 garnered him a bit of media attention, but it only lasted for a few years before Lee decided to divorce him. She held him accountable for physically and mentally abusing her. It was later confirmed that R. Kelly hadn’t just abused her.
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R. Kelly Amid Controversies
A person as famous as R Kelly has to bear public scrutiny as long as they stay famous, and sometimes even then. But the publicity Kelly has garnered is a lot more negative than anyone else’s. He has been at the center of controversy ever since he illegally married Aaliyah in 1994. The Aaliyah controversy was the first controversy he ever faced, but as he kept going, the number of controversies kept increasing.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Kelly has started to face assault allegations, and it was later confirmed by his ex-wife that he was in fact a predator who took joy in abusing females. Though the officials couldn’t gather evidence against him and his ex-wife decided to withdraw her accusations because of the hefty amount Kelly paid her, he was never arrested.
When Kelly was asked about his take on the allegations against him, he got violent and threw tantrums. and he never apologized for it either. The allegations against him grew strong in the late 2010s, and Kelly was reportedly bribing someone or another to hide his escape.
In 2018, the BBC channel aired a documentary that highlighted Kelly’s misconduct towards women and how he was constantly degrading the women he was involved with. This documentary was released after the 2017 allegations against him. According to the allegation, Kelly had kidnapped three girls and was holding them captive so that he could abuse them. Like every other allegation, Kelly denied this one as well, and the police could not find anything against him.
The Mute R. Kelly Movement
This movement was started to boycott Robert Kelly and stop him from using his fame to cover his escapades and crimes. This social media movement started in 2018 when this hashtag started trending. In the same year, Kelly was boycotted by various popular music streaming platforms as a result of this movement.
Spotify was the first platform to boycott Kelly’s music since the platform didn’t want to be associated with anyone who indulged in such heinous crimes. The platform had to reverse its decision because of pressure from Top Dawg Entertainment.
While this movement was gaining momentum, Kelly’s other misconduct issues were also highlighted. He has consistently shown criminal signs, and while these signs didn’t hint at his abusive nature, they cannot be ignored. In the late 1990s, Kelly disfigured a man’s face to the point that he needed more than 100 facial stitches. He bribed the officers and came out unscathed. Later, after his divorce from Andrea, he was supposed to pay her child support, but he never did. When Andrea filed a lawsuit against him, he claimed that she was destroying his image, and because of that, he wasn’t able to earn properly.
When the show Surviving R. Kelly started to stream in 2019 on the Lifetime channel, this movement gained momentum, and the musicians who collaborated with Kelly started to support this movement. It wasn’t until 2021 that all the allegations against him turned into lawsuits.
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The 2020 Decade for R Kelly
2022 proved to be the most critical year for Robert Kelly. This year, the world finally got to witness his dark side of him. On August 9, 2021, eleven accusers filed a lawsuit against Kelly. All the witnesses testified against Kelly and claimed that he physically abused them. This lawsuit helped all the other people who were accused by Kelly to come out and express their grief.
Kelly was accused of human trafficking and restitution, along with physical and mental abuse. Many victims claimed that he is mentally sick and shouldn’t be out for long. They have claimed that Kelly abuses underage girls and boys and records this misconduct. They claimed that Kelly took advantage of his fame and lured them with it. Most of the victims were caught in his trap because they wanted to meet and learn about the infamous music sensation.
In September 2021, Kelly was found guilty of all the crimes he was accused of. Kelly accepted that he bribed the prosecutors who filed the case against him and spent millions of dollars trying to keep himself afloat, but in the end, he lost the battle and his inner monster finally came out.
Where is R Kelly Now?
The jury has found Robert Kelly guilty of eight heinous crimes. Upon hearing all the witnesses, the jury assigned Kelly a 20-year sentence. In September 2022, Kelly was found guilty of abusing his minor goddaughter, as documented in the late 1990s. This lawsuit added one more crime to his long list of sadistic crimes.
Because of Kelly’s perverse nature and criminal activities, he is now serving his sentence. Though Kelly’s lawyers are still trying to somehow get him out or lessen his sentence, it is claimed that they are not having any success. Kelly is bound to serve at least a decade even if his lawyers try to apply to a higher court.
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