r kelly
Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
R. Kelly’s legal team has filed an emergency request to get him out of prison because of serious health problems.
According to TMZ, the 58-year-old singer fainted after prison staff reportedly gave him too much medication while he was in isolation. He was rushed to a hospital at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for treatment. This wasn’t the first sign that something was wrong. It has been reported that Kelly had been asking for medical help for a swollen leg for months, but says he was ignored.
When doctors at the hospital examined him, they allegedly found blood clots in both his legs and lungs, which can be very dangerous if not treated.
Kelly’s lawyers say the prison failed to give him proper medical care and that his health is getting worse. They believe he needs to be released so he can get the medical treatment he urgently needs. His legal team says staying in prison could put his life at serious risk. On top of the health concerns, Kelly’s lawyers recently claimed that federal officials are purposely trying to hurt his case and are working against him. They say he isn’t being treated fairly.
Right now, the court hasn’t made a decision on whether to let him out. But his lawyers are pushing hard, arguing that his current condition is too serious to ignore. They want him to get care outside of prison before it’s too late.
R. Kelly has been in prison since 2019 after being found guilty of several serious crimes.
In 2021, a New York court gave him 30 years for things like sex trafficking and using his fame to control and abuse young women. In 2023, a court in Chicago added another 20 years for child pornography and trying to get minors involved. Most of that new sentence runs at the same time as the first, but one extra year was added on.
As of June 2025, he’s serving a total of 31 years in a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.
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Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
R. Kelly‘s attorneys have filed a motion asking that he be freed. They say officials solicited another inmate to kill him.
As per Variety, the legal team representing R. Kelly has submitted an urgent request for his release. His attorney on retainer Beau Brindley says that they having damning evidence that the high-level employees at FCC Butner propositioned an inmate to kill the disgraced singer. According to the motion, Mikeal Glenn Stine, a terminally ill inmate at the same facility, has provided a sworn testimonial saying officials at the prison and prosecutors offered him freedom in exchange for killing R. Kelly. Stine also says that the alleged conspirators thought the plan out entirely even telling him that he would be charged with the crime but the evidence would be mishandled to guarantee a not guilty verdict.
Thankfully the Aryan Brotherhood member decided against it and shared the plot with the singer directly in March. Brindley says in June he was alerted that a different member of the Aryan Brotherhood was solicited to kill both R. Kelly and Stine. “The threat to Mr. Kelly’s life continues each day that no action is taken,” the filing reads. “More A.B. members are accumulating at his facility. More than one has already been approached about carrying out his murder. One of them will surely do what Mr. Stine has not, thereby burying the truth about what happened in this case along with Robert Kelly.”
Beau Brindley is asking that R. Kelly be released to home detention. This is not the first time R. Kelly has filed for a release. Back in 2020, he asked to be released due to fears of catching the coronavirus. He was eventually moved from Metropolitan Correctional Center Chicago to his current prison in North Carolina.
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R. Kelly is currently serving 30 years behind bars due to his explosive sexual abuse and human trafficking case, where he was convicted on nine counts. Largely mum during his prison stay. R. Kelly was a surprise guest for an inmate-focused podcast, saying at one point that singing was a “beautiful disease.”
As seen on TMZ, R. Kelly was a surprise guest for the Inmate Tea with A&P podcast, hosted by April Smith and Patricia Dillard. The podcast is centered on prison reforms and gives inmates a platform to “advocate for criminal justice reform and the humane treatment of inmates, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, by raising awareness of the injustices within the judicial and prison systems,” according to their website bio.
The hosts were slated to speak with another inmate at the FCI Butner Medium I in North Carolina but caught wind that the R&B singer and songwriter was housed there. While Kelly didn’t explicitly speak about his case, he did showcase his vocal ability and even shared that he’s written over two dozen albums.
At one point, Kelly referred to singing as “a beautiful disease that’s incurable” and pledged to always lean into that craft as long as he’s able. In a follow-up TMZ post, Smith and Dillard defended their choice to feature R. Kelly on their broadcast, seemingly elated by the big name-grab for their show. Despite Kelly’s infamous reputation, the pair told the outlet that they were able to separate Kelly from the heinous crimes attached to his name and have received backlash for running the interview.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
While Diddy continues to fight off all kinds of allegations and lawsuits centered around his disturbing predatory ways, the original pied piper of pedophilia, R. Kelly is back in the news as his victims have taken him back to court to get him to pay up for his crimes.
According to TMZ, six of R. Kelly’s victims have filed a lawsuit against the disgraced R&B singer claiming that the Chicago crooner has yet to pay them the millions of dollars they’re owed from a 2023 judgement against Kelly. In he lawsuit obtained by TMZ, the plaintiffs state that R. Kelly has only paid them a small portion of the $10.3 million that they’re owed and are demanding the “I Wish” singer cough up the rest as it’s already been two years since he was ordered to compensate them for his criminal abuse of them.
Per TMZ:
Lizette Martinez, Lisa Van Allen, Kelly Rogers, Faith Rogers, Roderick Gartrell and Gem Pratts claim they’ve received less than $500,000 … and they say Kelly is still on the hook for more than $9.9 million.
As you know, Kelly’s victims came forward in the Lifetime docuseries, “Surviving R. Kelly” … and they’re going after the disgraced singer and his former record label, Universal Music, for the money after claiming he shut down a screening of the doc in 2018.
TMZ broke the story … the judgment was leveled against Kelly in August 2023, but he pushed back and claimed he didn’t even know about the case and shouldn’t be held accountable.
R. Kelly is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for his crimes against humanity and while most of the world is already familiar with the disturbing stories surrounding Kelly’s predatory ways, his lawyer feels that the man shouldn’t be on the hook for the $10.3 million that the victims are seeking.
R. Kelly’s current lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, tells TMZ … “This outrageous default judgment was entered contrary to court rules, legal precedent, and basic principles of fairness. A New York court conducted a hearing in Mr. Kelly’s absence and without his knowledge while he was incarcerated in Chicago, awarding a staggering $10,000,000 to plaintiffs for conduct committed by someone else.”
She adds, “A pattern has emerged from courts across the country deciding that Mr. Kelly is not entitled to the same Due Process rights as everyone else. It’s getting old. No court would have been that cavalier with the money of a white man. Our appeal is pending on this issue.”
Looks like Kelly’s going to fight this one tooth and nail as his finances continue to disappear while he’s behind bars.What do y’all think about R. Kelly’s latest legal issue? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: James Devaney / Getty / Dame Dash
Dame Dash has become what he used to despise: a chatty patty. The former “cakeaholic” now explains why he was doing his iconic dice roll dance moves in R. Kelly’s “Fiesta (Remix)” video even though he dated the late singer, one of the disgraced musician’s victims, Aaliyah.
The former CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records opened up about his appearance in the R. Kelly music video alongside his former business partner, JAY-Z, in a recent episode of his American Nu Network podcast on YouTube.
During the episode, he answered a question from Baller Alert about his appearance in the R. Kelly/JAY-Z video despite famously dating Aaliyah and knowing her past with the jailed singer/songwriter.
He reveals that he spoke with Aaliyah, expressing that he didn’t want to be in the videos, but she said she didn’t want to start any trouble.
Per XXL:
“When Jay was proceeding to still do business with R. Kelly, I went back and told Aaliyah, like, ‘Yo, they’re still doing projects. They got singles together. They are shooting videos. I don’t want to go to the videos. I don’t want to have any parts of it,” Dame says at the 38:55 mark of the video below. “And what she told me was that, ‘I don’t want to start any trouble that would probably trigger more attention on it. I just want to heal. I just want to leave this alone and get as far away from it as possible. I don’t want to hear about it. I’m really happy with our relationship in this moment and where it’s going. Just don’t be in any scene with him and don’t take any pictures with him.’”
“So, you can ask anybody that was on the set,” he continues. “I stood in the trailer. When it came time to do the shoot, I did my shots with Jay or whoever. I was not in one scene with R. Kelly. And you never seen me in a picture with R. Kelly. At least after I met Aaliyah.”
We see.
In the episode, he also discussed Jaguar Wright’s outrageous claims about JAY-Z and more. If you have time to waste, you can’t watch the episode in its entirety below.
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Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
R. Kelly will now have to answer to yet another shocking allegation. The R&B crooner’s daughter Buku Abi claims he abused her as well.
As spotted by Vulture, the disgraced singer is being accused of sexual misconduct by his own offspring. Last week, a new documentary premiered that spotlighted the journey of his first born. According to the TVEI Network, R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey reveals “the traumatic impact of her father’s actions that exposes the heartbreaking secrets and betrayals within the family, reclaiming her voice and identity in the aftermath of his notorious scandals.” During the two-part project, Buku Abi, born Joanne Kelly, says the crooner molested her when she was 8 or 9 years old.
“For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I was too scared to tell anybody,” she explained. “I really feel like that one millisecond completely just changed my whole life and changed who I was as a person and changed the sparkle I had and the light I used to carry.” She went on reveal how the first incident occurred when R. Kelly was hosting a party and she decided to sleep in his office to be near her father. Late into the morning she says she woke up to him touching her inappropriately. “I just remember waking up to him touching me. And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there and pretended to be [asleep],” she added.
According to paperwork obtained by WBEZ Chicago, her mother Andrea Kelly filed a report with local police back in 2009. The claim was found to be “unfounded” by Illinois Department of Children & Family Services department. “The DCFS caseworker/investigator … specifically and personally advised Jane Doe’s mother that despite the fact that [the caseworker] believed that the events occurred, she had no choice but to deem the matter unfounded based on the length of time between the events occurring and Jane Doe reporting the incident,” the documentation read.
Upon the documentary’s release, Buku Abi took to Instagram to detail why she decided to tell her story. “I did it for me, I did it for my son. I did it for my peace of mind,” she wrote. “I did it for the ones that love and know me but never understood me growing up. I did it to honor truth. I did it to look my biggest demon in the eyes and tell ‘em I’m done.”
You can see the trailer to R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey below.
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Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
R. Kelly is exploring yet another route in order to get his freedom back. He is asking the Supreme Court to review his federal sex crimes case.
As spotted on TMZ, the disgraced entertainer might have a legal ace up his sleeve. This week, his lawyer Jennifer Bonjean confirmed she formally submitted a petition asking for his case to be reevaluated. According to the US Courts, a writ of certiorari is a “a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case for review.” In essence, she is making a statute of limitations argument where the actions he was accused of occurred in the 1990s/early 2000s and he was charged with a law that did not exist yet.
Jennifer Bonjean appeared on TMZ and explained this is not the first time this technicality was brought to the court. “Yes, we raised this issue pre-trial and it was denied” she said. “The government’s position is that they admit they applied a statute of limitations that did not exist at the time the conduct was allegedly committed. But they are saying that ‘we were permitted to extend it’ nor did it ‘harm’ him or ‘violate’ him.
R. Kelly was convicted on three counts of child pornography and three counts of inducement back in 2020. He was sentenced to 20 years and is slated to be released in 2045.
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Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Benzino has defended R. Kelly, stating he shouldn’t have gotten so much jail time for sexual abuse charges, leaving social media to blast his stance online.As R. Kelly continues to serve time in prison for child sex abuse charges including sex trafficking, Benzino has turned heads with asking why the disgraced singer is receiving such harsh punishment. The rapper and former co-founder of The Source voiced his opinion during the April 24 episode of his We In Miami Podcast. At the 12-minute mark of the episode, Benzino cites the fact that the age of consent in most states in America is at 16. “Again, the legal age is 16 years old,” Benzino said. “Does that make it right if a n—a does it? Yes or no?” After everyone collectively agreed it was “wrong” and “disgusting”, Benzino continued.
“Alright but it’s legal in America,” Benzino said. “Why the f—k is R. Kelly doing all this time? You know why because they’re 14 and 13. Two years younger. But you don’t think that the people who cleared it for 16 years old didn’t know that they were f—king with 13, 14-year-olds, too. For the age that young to be the law, you already know they goin’ under that. I’m not condoning with little girls, it’s sick. Alright, it’s sick, but I don’t think R. Kelly should rot in jail for 30 years either.”
The video went viral, with some bizarrely agreeing with Benzino, but many more blasting the Boston native for his comments given the heinous nature of R. Kelly’s crimes. Since the clip hit social media on Wednesday (May 1), the fallout has been constant with Benzino’s daughter Coi Leray emphatically distancing herself from him in posts on X, formerly Twitter. “I want everybody to know I want nothing to do with anything my father has going on,” she wrote. “I haven’t spoken to him in over a year and I don’t condone or respect any of them interviews he got going on. I don’t respect his decisions and I really want nothing to do with him please don’t even think of me when you see him.”
Check out some of the more bristling comments directed at Benzino below.
1. Uncle Demi
2. Mum Afrah
3. Kwintarget
4. Destroy Nectar
5. Vernj76
6. Vonshell Morgan
7. Nasa McMahon
8. Gullah Geechee Goddess
9. Sassington, M.C.
10. Alonzo Lerone
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Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections
R. Kelly’s hopes of a lighter sentence are just hopes now. A Chicago court has dismissed his appeal to review his 20-year sentence.
AP News is reporting that the disgraced singer did not receive favorable news regarding his legal woes. Back in February his legal team appealed his original sentence citing that the federal child pornography and child enticement charges were filed after the statue of limitations had expired. Additionally, they claimed that the charges tied to one accuser should have been separated due to there being alleged video evidence. Last week a three judge committee ruled against the self proclaimed “King of R&B” stating the sentencing was indeed just.
“An even-handed jury found Kelly guilty, acquitting him on several charges even after viewing those abhorrent tapes. No statute of limitations saves him, and the resulting sentence was procedurally proper and – especially under these appalling circumstances- substantively fair” the court document read. In September 2022 the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was found guilty on six counts of child pornography and child enticement. In an exclusive statement to Forbes Magazine his lawyer hinted at appealing at the federal court level saying “we are disappointed in the ruling but our fight is far from over.”
R. Kelly is currently serving his time at a medium security prison located in Butner, North Carolina. He is slated for release on Dec. 21, 2045.
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R. Kelly would probably be the last person most would expect to have an opinion on the legal issues Diddy is currently enduring, but the imprisoned singer has chimed in. During a recent Clubhouse chat, R. Kelly questioned the sex trafficking allegations Diddy is facing.
As seen on All Hip Hop, R. Kelly, 57, joined Wack 100 on Clubhouse and shared his views on the legal issues that the mogul, real name Sean Combs, is facing. In essence, Kelly stated bluntly that what’s happening to the Bad Boy Records honcho is nothing but falsehoods.
“The sh*t is crazy. Muthaf*ckas out there laughing and making comedian jokes and doing all the other sH*t on the radio and everything else, but they ass could be next,” Kelly is heard saying. “That’s what’s so f*cked up about it. They so stupid they don’t even realize the moves that’s going on.”
He added, “That’s why I don’t believe none of this sh*t. You could tell me about Puffy, you could about anybody in there. You could tell me on the news, the weather, the sky is blue, I’m not gonna believe the sh*t. ‘Cause I’m in it now, and I know what they did.”
It appears that Kelly is insinuating that the charges he’s currently serving time for and what Diddy is being accused of are part of some larger conspiracy to ruin the legacies and careers of the men.
The conversation with Wack 100 and R. Kelly can be heard in the clip below.
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Photo: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections