Robert Sylvester Kelly has been giving us Perv-God vibes since the '90s, as he was composing sexual-innuendo laced ballads for then-teenage R&B sensation Aaliyah, to whom he'd been secretly married. After Aaliyah's parents had their marriage annulled and barred Kelly from contacting her, Kelly proceeded to rack up a laundry list of bizarre sexual exploits. In 2002, a sex tape surfaced of R. Kelly urinating on an underage girl. Although 21 charges (including child pornography) were filed against Kelly, the charges were eventually reduced to 14 and then subsequently dropped. More recently, there was the alleged "sex cult," where concerned parents claimed that the self-proclaimed Pied Piper coerced their daughters into becoming his personal sex-slaves with promises of turning them into musical superstars. Now, a young woman has filed a lawsuit against Kelly, charging him with sexual assault and knowingly infecting her with herpes. After activists nailed Russell Simmons to the cross and successfully got "The Cosby Show" reruns removed from major networks, why is it that R. Kelly seems to being getting off unscathed?
In an effort to castigate R. Kelly for his transgressions, the #MuteRKelly movement, a branch of the Time's Up campaign, pushed for industry bigwigs to sever ties with the R&B singer. As a result, Spotify agreed to remove Kelly's music from all of it's playlists, with Apple Music and Pandora following suit. However, the removal of his music did little to affect his music streams. In fact, according to an article published by Fortune, R. Kelly's Spotify streams are actually higher than they were prior to the music removal. This signifies a larger issue. It seems as if the musician is actually being rewarded for sexual misconduct, with fans adding more money to his bank account in spite of recent allegations.
Increased music streams are undoubtably cushioning R. Kelly's pockets, they have also done a number on his ego. A recent video surfaced of Kelly boastfully raving about "40 billion mother—–s" that still love him. In an ever-so braggadocios manner, he then proceed to exclaim that "it's too late" and "they should've did this s–t 30 years ago." However, he may have a point. R. Kelly has enjoyed a career spanning over three decades, with numerous allegations of him engaging in statutory rape with countless young girls, nevertheless, he has yet to be subjected to any grave consequences. When faced with criminal charges, R. Kelly simply goes to the studio, records a gospel-tinged track and his songs proceed to work their way up the Billboard charts.
The level of bravado that R. Kelly displays is indicative of a sexual deviant that has zero-intentions of correcting his behavior unless prompted to do so. Yes, R. Kelly is a brilliant musician and songwriter whose music holds the ability to induce random time-traveling episodes down memory lane. However, each time we decide to liven up the family cookout by playing "Step in the Name of Love," we are giving a pass to predatory sexual misconduct.
