(New York) R. Kelly, a disgraced R&B artist sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex crimes against teenage girls and guilty of child pornography, saw an unreleased album released Friday, while he is incarcerated, on the platforms Spotify and Apple Music, disc that the specialized press described as a pirate recording.
It was the TMZ media which first claimed that Robert Sylvester Kelly, 55, imprisoned in New York, had posted the album online. I Admit It — 13 tracks including the eponymous 19-minute track already published in 2018 on SoundCloud.
Spotify did not respond to requests from AFP and, a few hours after the article by TMZ and another by HollywoodReporterthe disc was no longer available on either of the two online music platforms, it was found.
A representative of the owner of the rights of R. Kelly Sony Music, questioned by the media varietyassured that this album briefly available on the platforms had been made public unofficially, that is to say according to variety that it was a “pirate” recording released under the coat.
A lawyer for R. Kelly, Jennifer Bonjean, also said, still with varietythat neither the singer nor his entourage were behind this event, and that his client had “had his intellectual property stolen”.
The singer, known worldwide for his success I Believe I Can Fly and his 75 million records sold, was found guilty in September 2021 in New York of having piloted for three decades a “system” of sexual exploitation of young people, including adolescent girls. For these sexual crimes, the federal court in Brooklyn sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
And last September, a court in Chicago (Illinois) found him guilty of production of child pornography and embezzlement of a minor. He could be sentenced to “10 to 90 years in prison”, according to the Illinois federal prosecutor.
The lawsuits against R. Kelly are considered a major milestone in the #metoo movement: it is the first time that the majority of plaintiffs have been black women accusing a black artist and obtaining justice.
For decades, the success of R. Kelly had been tarnished by suspicions of sexual violence, objects of persistent rumors. He had long managed to silence them with financial agreements that included confidentiality clauses.