R. Kelly Has Been in Prison for Three Years and Claims He's Recorded 25 Albums

Billboard - Three years into a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering, R. Kelly broke his silence this week during a seven-minute phone call into the Inmate Tea With A&P podcast, in which the disgraced former R&B star claimed that he’s written more than two dozen albums since his imprisonment in 2022.

There's an ever growing list of celebrities. A list featuring actors, athletes, musicians, random people who post funny videos on TikTok, etc., who put people in a position where they have to decide if the art outweighs the artist. It always sucks to learn that someone who you're a fan of did something terrible, and forced you into a moral dilemma. Some decisions are easier than other. Take Darren Sharper for example. Darren Sharper was a 5x All-Pro, Super Bowl winning safety. On the other hand, he was serial rapist. So it was an easy decision for almost everybody with a vote to not vote Darren Sharper into the Hall of Fame. Everybody except for Peter King.

But consider a guy like Peyton Manning. Did Peyton Manning drag his sack across an unsuspecting trainer's face as she examined his ankle while at the University of Tennessee in 1996? Allegedly, yes, something like that. But he was a 14x All-Pro who won 2 Super Bowls and has the 3rd most passing yards in NFL history. In Peyton's case, the stats outweigh the nutsack dragging to the point that Peyton Manning gets his own show talking ball on a Disney owned network. 

So how does R. Kelly stack up? On one hand, as a grown adult, R. Kelly illegally married actress/singer Aaliyah when she was 14-years old. A few years later he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year old girl. A few years after that, a video surfaced of him urinating on a third underage girl. That same year he was hit with 21 counts of child pornography. He was accused of holding several woman hostage and forcing them to be a part of a cult. In 2017 he raped a woman and infected her with herpes. In 2019 he was slapped with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He gave this interview. 

Then there were some more sexual abuse allegations… a little more child pornography… another case of herpes spreading. In the end, R. Kelly was found guilty on 9 charges. Charges consisting of kidnapping, bribery, sexual exploitation of a child, racketeering, and forced labor. U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said of the verdict, "Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification — a predator who used his inner circle to ensnare underage girls and young men and women for decades an assorted web of sex abuse, exploitation and humiliation,”

But have you ever heard I Believe I Can Fly?

What about Ignition (Remix)…

I suppose when you lay it all out like that… as hard as I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix) still slap to this day… it's not much of a Sophie's choice. R. Kelly = bad guy. I disavow R. Kelly. I will never Ignition (Remix) at karaoke night again. 

But I wouldn't mind getting my hands on 25 albums worth of unreleased R. Kelly prison music. I'm not sure if there are any laws we can use to commandeer that music away from him. I don't really want to contribute to R. Kelly continuing to profit off his music. Maybe we can force R. Kelly to sell his unreleased prison music and have the proceeds go to his victims. There's gotta be a way for us to get our hands on it in a somewhat guilt-free-ish way. 

And don't get me wrong. I don't think R. Kelly is sitting on any classics in there. I'm not sure he's got those in him anymore. Although the pain of prison does sometimes bring out the best in people. I still have this prison song stuck in my head from 4 years ago.

But I'm certainly not coming from the perspective of "R. Kelly is a musical genius whose art must be shared with the world". God no. Not anymore. I think R. Kelly is probably sitting on 25 albums of an even more unhinged version of "Trapped In The Closet". "Trapped In The Prison", if you will. Even stuck in prison, R. Kelly didn't write 25 lyrically coherent albums in only 3 years. He's almost certainly just going off the top. I bet R. Kelly is simply sing-rapping partially fabricated accounts of what he did that day to someone recording on the other end of the line. Something like this, but even stupider and more psychotic.

Billboard - Kelly, claimed that he’s written “like 25 albums” since he was sentenced to three decades in prison in 2021 following a conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges; in 2022, Kelly was also convicted of three counts of sexual exploitation enticement of a minor child via production of child pornography as well as three counts of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. 

Before his sentence, Kelly was known for his prolific nature, releasing 18 studio albums from 1992 through 2016 as well as 33 chapters in his bizarre “Trapped in the Closet” musical soap opera series between 2005 and 2012. 

In addition to writing songs from his cell at a federal prison in North Carolina, Kelly said he’s working on trying to get out of prison so he can get back to “what it is God gave me, my talent.” Last month, Manhattan’s 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Kelly’s bid to appeal his New York conviction, which, given the singer’s age, could keep him locked up into his 80s if he serves the full term.

Did R. Kelly get in any fights over the remote that day? Did a sexy female prison guard try to seduce him? Did he catch a fellow prisoner dropping the soap in the shower? Did he encounter any midgets? I just know there's some real delusional, unhinged stories in those recordings. I'm not sure how we go about convincing R. Kelly to release them to us. If he truly believes God put him on Earth to share his talent, he should release the music free of charge. But I'm guessing he's in desperate need of money. So we'll probably have to illicit the help of a judge and/or victim. Or we find a bigger, stronger prisoner locked up with R. Kelly who can acquire the songs by force.  Either way, I'd love to hear them. And I feel like as long as we make sure we're laughing at R. Kelly, and not with R. Kelly… and we make sure we aren't funding his commissary, then morally we should be ok. 

If we can't get the music now, R. Kelly is likely going to be in prison until he's in his 80's. He's currently 58-years old. For simple math's sake, let's say he's locked up another 24 years. If he's written 25 albums in 3 years, then when he's finally released, he should have roughly 225 albums of crazy to share with the world. I imagine he'll release it as a 2,250 part "Trapped In The Prison" music video series. Probably featuring cameos from other terrible people who agree to work with him (P. Diddy, Suge Knight, Joe Exotic, Julie and Toddy Chrisley, people of that nature).

However it's eventually shared with the world, I'm sure it will be a train-wreck.