R Kelly

R. Kelly’s trial for criminal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges began last week. But there’s another issue that’s plaguing the troubled singer. According to Billboard, he’s on a mission to sell off his song catalog. He’s willing to “sell low” and hand off the catalog for anyone who’s willing to purchase it. The issue is that no one so far has stepped forward to buy it.

Earlier this month, R. Kelly’s lawyer Devereaux Cannick revealed that the singer is extremely short on cash, saying that his funds are “depleted.” Billboard estimates his catalog generates somewhere around $1.7 million per year, and while that might be a livable amount to some, a small portion of that amount actually falls into Kelly’s hands. Tack on his ongoing legal battles and the recent ones he’s lost, including a case that resulted in a woman winning $4 million after she sued him for sexually abusing her when she was 16, it’s clear to see why Kelly is in need of some cash.

However, it doesn’t seem like the price of his catalog won’t stop dropping anytime soon. The singer still has federal cases in New York and Illinois as well as state trials in Illinois and Minnesota, all of which could cause further damage to the catalog’s price.

After years of being accused of sex crimes and abuse, disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly has finally started his trial in New York City. A second woman recently gave a testimony to the court about the horrific abuse and sex crimes she faced at the hands of Kelly dating back to 2015, when she was just 17.

The woman, who wishes to anonymously go by “Jane,” laid out the accusations of abuse that took place during their five-year relationship, including grooming, sexual assault, and even a forced abortion in 2017. According to a report from NPR, Jane claimed she met the singer in 2015 when she was just 17 (meaning he was 48 at the time), hoping that knowing Kelly would lead him to helping her music career. She was already taking a number of music classes, hoping to score a music scholarship to college, and even landing a number of professional music gigs.

After meeting R. Kelly, Jane claims he pressured her into having sex. “I was against it,” she said in court. “I told him I did not come to please him. He continued to persist.” Jane claimed that afterwards, she was forced to live under Kelly’s “rules,” which included wearing only baggy clothes, not speaking to other men including members of his team, and being forced to stay in her room for days on end.

Read NPR’s full report on R. Kelly’s trial here.

R. Kelly, the disgraced R&B star accused of grooming and sexually abusing several young women, is officially on trial in New York City, where he faces the above charges as well as allegations that he kept them under his power through means of a criminal conspiracy. R. Kelly stands accused of numerous criminal acts, among them, bribing government officials, knowingly giving two women a sexually transmitted disease, and psychologically and physically abusing the women under his influence. The trial began today, with both sides delivering their opening statements.

According to the New York Times, the prosecution’s opening speech lasted around one hour, during which assistant US attorney Maria Cruz Melendez outlined the loose criminal organization Kelly allegedly fostered to help him keep these and other women under his thumb. She said that he “used his fame, his popularity and a network of people at his disposal to target, groom and exploit young girls, boys, and women for his own sexual gratification.” Some of those associates have already pled guilty to bribing witnesses on his behalf.

Kelly was said to have not only coerced some of the women to have sex with him but also with other men, often as a punishment for displeasing him, in addition to being isolated, locked alone in rooms for days, and being physically beaten by Kelly. Kelly’s defense denied the charges, attributing the expected testimonies against the singer to the women being fame-hungry.

Meanwhile, Kelly still faces the prospect of another criminal trial in Chicago, where he faces similar charges, including child porn and obstruction of justice charges.

R. Kelly is set to go on trial over pair of cases in the coming months. One is based in Brooklyn, New York, where he faces federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges; the other is based in his hometown of Chicago, where he received charges for child pornography and obstruction of justice. While things are already bad enough for the singer, they may have just gotten worse: Chicago Sun Times shared new court documents that present fresh allegations that Kelly sexually assaulted a minor back in 2006.

The document claims that the singer met the 16-year-old boy at a McDonald’s more than a decade ago. Kelly then invited him to his studio and asked “what he was willing to do to succeed in the music business” and added that he wanted “to engage in sexual contact.” The documents go on to say that the minor introduced Kelly to a male friend of his, who at the time was around the age of 16 or 17. This individual, who was labeled “John Doe #2” in the documents, eventually entered a sexual relationship with Kelly, who “paid John Doe #2 after sexual encounters with him.”

Meanwhile, Kelly’s Brooklyn trial is set to begin on August 18. If he’s convicted he will face up to 70 years in prison.