—blogged by @lovelikejhoney
With Spotify recently pulling all R.Kelly’s music and Lifetime approving a docu-series and movie, the question is why now?
For years, stories have broke about the R&B star and his infatuation with significantly younger women. Below is a complete timeline for the history of continued accusations against #RKelly.
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1994: R. Kelly, 27, marries R&B princess #Aaliyah, who was only 15.
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1998: R. Kelly paid $250,000 settlement for “emotional distress and personal injuries.” Records say he began having relations with the 15-year-old plaintiff when he was 24 years old.
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2001: Tracy Sampson, 17, a former intern at Epic Records, claimed she was “treated as his personal sex object and cast aside”. According to the New York Post, the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
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April and May 2002: Two more underage girls came forward with lawsuits against the singer and songwriter.
Patrice Jones settled out of court for an undisclosed sum for claims of forced abortion. Montina Woods also received hush money for alleging R. Kelly to have videotaped them having sex without her knowledge.
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June 2002: R. Kelly was charged with child pornography and 21 counts of enticing a minor to participate in intercourse, oral sex, urination and other sexual acts. After 6 years, the court found the singer not guilty on all counts after not being able to prove the young lady was underage at the time the tapings took place.
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2002-2004: Kelly is charged with 12 counts of child pornography after a camera was seized in a search of his Florida home. Evidence from the home invasion was dropped after the judge declared a lack of probable cause for the home search.
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2017: Kelly is accused of operating a “sex-cult” after Buzzfeed reports that six women are being held in the star’s properties, where he controls all aspects of their lives including outside communication, what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.
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Although Kelly has never been convicted of a crime, the fact that multiple lawsuits with underaged women were settled outside of court, gives a guilty association. While stories and allegations of pedophilia have been revealed to the public, it wasn’t until recently that Kelly’s career began to suffer as a result. In addition to no longer being streamed on Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music have also followed suit.
