![]() We have a history in this country of not believing black girls and women, that we have no agency over our bodies. The fact his victims have been dismissed has everything to do with the fact they are Black girls. He is our problem-he has preyed on Black girls and Black women specifically. What crossed over more than “I Believe I Can Fly” is folks thinking “Trapped in the Closet” was the most hilarious shit they had ever seen, in the same way they would watch a blaxploitation movie. Kelly is a Black artist-he makes Black music and he hasn’t really crossed over. It seems that whole parts of the story have been suppressed.įirst of all, R. Do you think race has affected how the media has reported on R. I thought this was an opportunity to finally deal with R. They were in touch and had been holding space for the relationships with the survivors and that kind of piqued my interest and I was like ‘Okay, this is going to be special, if y’all do it right, if we don't mess it up.’ That leads to my next question ….how did you receive the project? I was late to the Skype call, I had on my sunglasses and was eating my sushi, and I was like ‘What do you guys want? Do you want to do a reenactment?’ And they told me they wanted to do a serious documentary. I was like ‘Why would I meet with the people that do the Kardashians and the people that did the horrible Aaliyah Movie?’ I never watch Lifetime…. Were you the one responsible for getting Lifetime on board?ĭream hampton: No, Bunim/Murray productions had a relationship with Lifetime. Here, she talks about how the doc got made (especially since she had no love for Lifetime), and what she hopes it achieves. Is the world finally ready to hear and believe Kelly’s victims? Can the public separate the man from the art? Should they? Executive producer and showrunner dream hampton and her team interviewed over 50 people for the groundbreaking doc with a singular focus: telling the stories of Black women. Since then, multiple women have come forward with harrowing accounts of sexual assault and violence at the hands of Kelly, all of which the artist vehemently denies. In July 2017, Buzzfeed reported that several women were part of a sex cult with Kelly at its helm. Kelly's acquittal concretized a message that Black girls are disposable. It would seem that such tangible evidence would convince his legions of fans and a jury of 12, tasked with serving justice, that Robert Sylvester Kelly was a sexual predator. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play Kelly was indicted with 21 counts of child pornography, and after a strategically delayed trial that stretched over eight years, the recording artist was cleared of all charges. Kelly engaging in sex with teenage girls, and urinating on an apparent minor, presumed to be 14 years of age. ![]() ![]() Then, at the height of his career in 2002, a video leaked of R. At least one of these cases was settled for $250,000. Though these headlines wouldn’t make national news yet, in the late ‘90s several Chicago-area women (Kelly is from Chicago), accused the celebrity of sexual coercion when they were minors. (In 1995, VIBE magazine published a marriage certificate that falsified the budding singer’s age, listing her as 18, when in fact was only 15 years old.) The union was later annulled but rumors of Kelly’s predation of underage women continued to circulate. Kelly’s predatory behavior date back to 1994 when he secretly-and illegally-wed songstress and protégé Aaliyah. ![]() It concretized a message that Black girls are disposable. ![]()
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