The R&B singer, convicted of multiple sex abuse crimes, said that “singing was a beautiful disease that’s incurable.”
R. Kelly, who is serving a decadeslong prison term on charges related to sexual abuse, has given a rare public interview.
In a monitored phone call on Sunday with the podcast “Inmate Tea with A&P,” the disgraced R&B singer claimed that he “has written over 25 albums” since his incarceration began.
Kelly began the interview, in which he expressed no contrition for his crimes, with an a capella rendition of his 1998 song “When a Woman’s Fed Up.”
He was sentenced to 30 years behind bars in 2022 for racketeering and transporting minors across state lines for sexual activity.
Later that year, he was convicted of multiple child pornography and sex abuse charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on those charges, but was told he could serve all but one year concurrently with his prior 30-year sentence.
In a documentary that aired last year, Kelly’s daughter, Buku Abi, accused the artist of sexually abusing her during her childhood.
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” Abi, born Joann Kelly, said in the two-part series, “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.” “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
The singer’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, dismissed the allegations made by his daughter.
During his interview with the podcast, the convicted sex criminal said that “singing is a beautiful disease that’s incurable.”
Kelly, 58, continued by saying he is “working on getting out and getting back to getting back to what it is God” gave him his talents for. He added that he is “using patience as a tactic.”
Before Kelly’s first sentencing in 2022, victim witnesses Angela, Addie, Lizzette Martinez, Stephanie, Kitti Jones, Faith Rodgers and Sonja stepped up to the court podium to share their statements.
Angela, who witnessed Kelly assault R&B singer Aaliyah and was also a victim of sexual assault herself in the early ’90s, addressed her statement to Kelly directly.
“We are no longer the preyed upon individuals that we once were,” she read aloud. “I am a representation of every woman, boy, child, man that you have ever afflicted with your deplorable, despicable acts. And with that I leave you with yourself, Robert Sylvester Kelly.”
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Last month, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan denied Kelly’s attempt to appeal his sex trafficking and racketeering charges, the Associated Press reported. Given his age, this ruling could result in him remaining incarcerated until his 80s if he serves the entirety of his sentence.