Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson has opened up about how he reacted to learning of R. Kelly sexually abusing his niece.
During a recent interview with the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, Hankerson stated that he was upset to learn that R. Kelly illegally married his teenage niece after allegedly getting her pregnant. The revelation was incredibly upsetting to him, considering that he was the one who introduced the two during the 90s. Hankerson says that he had to really “consider what my actions would be” and even thought of physically harming the prominent R&B star. However, once he realized that he “wasn’t a hardcore criminal,” he decided that a higher power would handle Kelly.
The founder of Blackground Records ultimately leaned on his Muslim faith to help him come to grips with the abuse of Aaliyah, who was just 15-years-old when the then 27-year-old R. Kelly wed her. Hankerson explained that he consulted with Minister Farrakhan, who helped him work through his many feelings.
“We just prayed about it, resolved ourselves to let God handle him. I think that’s what’s going on. Ain’t no sense in two lives getting destroyed,” he stated.
The 74-year-old has come under fire over the years for a variety of reasons, including Aaliyah’s songs being unavailable on streaming platforms until recently and his alleged awareness of R. Kelly’s mistreatment of her.
R. Kelly’s inappropriate relationship with Aaliyah has come up in his sex trafficking trial to help prosecutors show the singer’s pattern of sexual perversion over the years. Hankerson says he has “put up a wall” when it comes to news coverage about the Grammy winner’s case, which he says has brought back “too many bad thoughts for my whole family.”
