OPINION:
Our family loves live music performances, and often grasps opportunities to shake a tail feather, groove to a groovy sax in Baltimore or Rehoboth Beach, sway to soulful gospel sounds, or hop on a cruise for the Capital Jazz extravaganza.
Music is indeed a universal language, and that’s what drew us to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Hubby Rick and I, sans kids, had attended a couple of times and decided in 1999 to let our teen-age daughter and goddaughter tag along, since the festival was family friendly.
Well, all was going smoothly until R. Kelly took the stage. He was cool, at first. Then overtly sexually suggestive.
Rick sort of nudged me, because R. Kelly was prepared to bump and grind on stage. The evidence? Bedding.
Well, it didn’t happen. The lights were unplugged. The audio was unplugged.
While I do not recall whether management apologized for the Kelly interruptus, I do remember seeing parents quietly walking out with children in tow.
A standing ovation to Essence and the parents who walked their young kids and teens away from what could have been a disgusting performance by a hugely popular singer-songwriter.
Flash forward to 2019, because I am not alone in suspecting that many mothers, fathers and adult women had unplugged their children, too.
For the second time, R. Kelly is charged with having illicit relations with teen girls and women. The first set of allegations were brought in Chicago, his hometown, where in 2008, he was found not guilty on 14 of 14 charges.
This latest go-round is also in Chicago, where he faces 10 counts of sexually abusing four females — including three who were underage at the time of the suspected assault.
R. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and he has denied all allegations made by several women.
In a two-part interview with CBS News anchor Gayle King on Wednesday, he spilled his entire pot of beans.
After asking Mrs. King if a camera was filming him, he looked at the camera and continued ranting: “Stop it. You all quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f****** life! Y’all killing me with this s***!”
Standing up, the R&B singer said, “I gave you 30 years of my f****** career!”
And he was paid hundreds of millions of dollars over that career.
That paints him as a victim and, most interestingly, tells every potential juror in Chicago and Cook County that he’s not going to get a free trial.
In Part 2 of the interview, which aired Thursday, he laid out why he’s been unable to pay $161,000 in arrears in child support: 1) He blamed his ex-wife for “destroying” his name so he can’t make any money; 2) he claimed other people stole from his bank accounts.
He again painted himself as a victim.
Granted, R. Kelly has been labeled as illiterate. But, then again, as old ’hood heads used to say, when you get off the pot, whether it’s gold or not, you’ve got to wipe yourself.
The reality is this: R. Kelly is in denial and scared to death of facing the music that he and his entourage wrote the score to.
For sure, he may no longer believe that he can fly. However, he legally married Andrea and produced three children with her, and promised to pay child support. Growing up in a poor family, he should have known to meet those obligations — even if it meant he had to curb his own lavish spending and hedonistic ways.
He can’t paint himself as the victim when he has neglected children and relished the R. Kelly lifestyle with other people’s children.
Andrea Kelly has said Robert Sylvester Kelly is one person, and R. Kelly is was another.
For now, Robert Sylvester Kelly has been unplugged, too.
⦁ Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.