The media circus and chaos around him is part of a wider parable on the morals of the music industry. In the meantime, he continues recording and is committed to a handful of promotional duties to support the release of the new album, Happy People/U Saved Me, including this first interview with a British publication since the story broke.
#R KELLY AGE AINT NOTHIN BUT A NUMEBR TRIAL#
A trial date has yet to be set, almost two years after the indictment.
But the FBI insists the tape is not doctored. Kelly denies that it is him in the videotape at the centre of the outstanding charges, and that the girl involved is the niece of one of his former protegees, Stephanie Edwards, who had recorded with Kelly under the name Sparkle. Earlier this year, prosecutors in Florida dropped 12 child pornography charges against him after a judge ruled that photographs seized from his home allegedly showing him with yet a further minor were seized illegally. When the present scandal broke, other reports revealed that Kelly had settled a civil case in 1998 involving a sexual relationship with another then-underage girl, and that he was in the process of settling a lawsuit brought by an Epic Records intern making similar allegations. The marriage was annulled and no charges were brought. At the same time he wrote and produced a song for her called 'Age Ain't Nothin' But A Number'. In 1994, he married 15-year old singer Aaliyah (later to die in a plane crash at the age of 22), who falsified her birthdate on the marriage certificate to make herself seem 18. Throughout a career in which he has sold more than 23 million albums, and worked with everyone from the Notorious BIG to Celine Dion and Michael Jackson, Kelly has been pursued by rumours of his interest in underage girls. After the story first surfaced, he claimed: 'Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through.' Notoriously eccentric and reclusive as well as one of the most influential figures in pop, the singer is currently staring at a 19-year stretch in an Illinois state penitentiary if convicted of 14 charges of child pornography stemming from a home video that allegedly depicts him having sex with a 14-year old girl and otherwise degrading her. But sunshine, innocence and joy notwithstanding, Kelly is surrounded by darkness. He also has a new double album to promote, which includes the uplifting 'Happy People' - another smash in the vein of 'Ignition (Remix)', a number one single for four weeks in the UK last summer.
The week before we meet, this dearly beloved figurehead of the African-American Dream won seven of the eight gongs for which he was nominated at Billboard magazine's prestigious R&B and hip hop awards.
'Kelly! Kelly!' the kids chant, waiting for a glimpse. R Kelly converted this former home of Trax Records, the fabled acid house label, into his own studios in 2000 and now frequently lives and sleeps here, too. It is 3pm on a sunny afternoon in August and half-a-dozen street kids on scrambler bikes are gathered around the gates of the Chocolate Factory in a regenerating suburb of Chicago.
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