Since the early days of his career, R. Kelly has garnered a troubling reputation for having sexual and romantic affairs with underage girls — beginning with his marriage to a teenage Aaliyah while he was in his 20s, a sex tape with a teenage girl and, most recently, operating an abusive sex cult which allegedly included a 14-year-old girl. 

The singer is now acknowledging these accusations with partial admissions, but mostly denial, in a 19-minute song titled "I Admit" uploaded to SoundCloud on Monday, July 23. He refers to the dropping of the song in a statement directed toward the fans he's somehow maintained amid all of the scandal, which mostly victimized black girls and women, as the "day you've been waiting for."

Kelly admits his predilection for younger women, but mostly frames the growing resistance against his music in light of the alleged sexual misconduct as "opinions" and boldly takes the stance of the victim in the track:

“You may have your opinions, entitled to your opinions / But really am I supposed to go to jail or lose my career because of your opinion / Yeah, go ahead and stone me, point your finger at me / Turn the world against me, but only God can mute me," he croons. 

“I done made some mistakes / How they gon’ say I don’t respect these women when all I’ve done is represent / Take my career and turn it upside down, ’cause you mad I’ve got some girlfriends," Kelly continues. 

He also shifts the blame for his participation in the sex tape to journalist Jim DeRogatis.  

“To Jim DeRogatis, whatever your name is (whatever your name is) / You been tryna destroy me for 25 whole years / Writin’ the same stories over and over against / Off my name, you done went and made yourself a career / But guess what? I pray for you and family, and all my other enemies / I’m not gonna let y’all steal my joy, I’m just gon' keep on doing me.”

Additionally, the singer reveals he was molested as a child. 

“Now, I admit a family member touched me / From a child to the age 14/ While I laid asleep, took my virginity.”

r.kellysexual misconducttSexual-abuse