Chicago Landlord Seizes R. Kelly’s Sony Music Royalties To Pay Back Rent on Infamous Music Studio

In the wake of the resurfaced outrage over R.Kelly’s alleged history of physical, mental and sexual abuse of young and underaged girls, the baller has taken a financial hit. In fact, after Lifetime released its highly anticipated “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary, which detailed years of allegations against the singer, his label, Sony, dropped him, forcing him to find other ways to make money and release new music. 

But despite Kelly’s financial hardships, his former landlord is determined to collect the money the singer owes to him for his infamous Chicago music studio, even if it means freezing funds to do so. 

In court documents obtained by The Blast, Midwest Commercial Funding issued a subpoena to Kelly’s former label, Sony Music Holdings, to get ahold of Kelly’s biannual royalty account, which would in turn help pay off the singer’s massive debt in back rent. 

As a result, Sony froze the $264,535 left in the account, which was meant to cover the $173,855.08 judgment owed to the landlord for the unpaid rent. But instead, Midwest collected only $154,527.22 from one of Kelly’s Bank of America accounts after a “turnover order” was issued.

Now, the company is asking a judge to allow them to collect another $53,000 to cover the cost and clear Kelly of his longstanding debt.