R. Kelly is rebuked for trying to revive music career behind bars amid 31-year sentence for child sex crimes
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R. Kelly was widely lambasted on social media this week after he appeared to brazenly record a new song — from behind bars.
The 58-year-old disgraced singer — who is in the midst of serving a combined 31-year prison sentence for child pornography, sex trafficking and racketeering convictions — reportedly sang a new verse to fellow felon Chris Brown's 2024 song residuals.
Kelly had a surprisingly lo-fi way to get his verse out of the medium-security federal prison where he is serving his sentence in North Carolina — via the prison phone system.
The music producer Rodney East posted the audio to social media on Monday, claiming that it was a real recording of R. Kelly from prison and not an AI fake modeled on his voice.
The former R&B hitmaker was joining in on a viral singing challenge in which other stars had recorded their own verses for Residuals, though the trend was all but dead by the time Kelly took a stab at it.
The audio clip opens with a woman's recorded voice reciting 'This call is from a federal prison,' before the singer states his name as 'Robert Kelly.'
R. Kelly was widely lambasted on social media this week after he brazenly recorded a new song — from behind bars, where he's serving a 31-year sentence for child pornography, sex trafficking and racketeering; pictured in 2019 in Chicago
Music producer Rodney East posted audio to social media on Monday that was allegedly recorded by R. Kelly via phone from the medium-security federal prison in North Carolina where he's currently serving a 31-year sentence; seen in 2012 in NYC
'Tell me who, who’s getting all my checks? Where is my money at?,' a voice resembling Kelly's sings. 'Tell me who, who’s getting paid for my grind? All of that’s supposed to be mine.'
The singer continues: 'Who gave you 34 years? Who made you billions of dollars? Who put the "R" in "R&B," swear that it’s killing me. Am I still making you holler?'
However, if the song really featured Kelly's vocals, it had to feature editing or manipulation to reach the final version that East posted, as Kelly appeared to have recorded backing vocals to himself.
The feat would have seemingly required him to have made multiple phone calls with different vocals, which would then have to be mixed by East or someone else before the verse was posted.
However, and AI program would have been able to produce the multiple layers of vocals, or even to transform someone else's voice into an approximation of R. Kelly's.
There's also a strange discrepancy between the captions listing the lyrics and the audio.
The clip lists the lyrics to one line as 'Don't even send s*** to my books for commissary,' but Kelly sounds as if he sings 'commentary' instead, which doesn't seem to make sense in context, and would also be the kind of error that might pop up in an AI-generated song.
On X (formerly Twitter), reactions to the release of the verse were largely negative, though some R. Kelly fans persisted.
On X (formerly Twitter), reactions to the release of the verse were largely negative
However, some R. Kelly fans persisted
Other listeners were thought the verse was either sung by someone else or completely created by an AI program
Kelly is currently scheduled to be released in December of 2045; seen in 2019
'They praising R Kelly cause he sang Residuals good, like yall don't stand for s*** ever,' wrote one incensed user.
Another person opined that the Residuals challenge was 'officially ruined' now that Kelly had allegedly tried his hand at it.
'They really tryna soft launch R. Kelly back into the world,' one shocked poster noted. 'Why is he singing a Residuals Remix on a jail phone man 😭😭😭😭.'
But others were digging Kelly's alleged verse, with one fan on Instagram commenting that he was 'STILL THE KING OF R&B!!!!'
Another person conceded that Kelly 'deserves to be in jail,' but added, 'I'm not gonna hold yall...he killed that residuals challenge...smh.'
Other listeners were thought the verse was either sung by someone else or completely created by an AI program.
'The Oldheads on [Facebook] think that's the real R. Kelly on that residuals remix,' joked one user, while another wrote: 'Folks going up for a fake R. Kelly "Residuals" remix. Yall are really pathetic.'
As of 2023, Kelly's victims had reportedly only received about $27,000 dollars in restitution from him, so in August 2023 a judge ordered that royalties from his songwriting credits would be garnished and redirected to pay the remaining sum they were owed, which was over $500,000 at the time.
Kelly is currently scheduled to be released in December of 2045.
