After a staggering amount of sexual abuse allegations and lawsuits, many fans have wondered how, exactly, they should continue to listen to the R&B giant R. Kelly. While his songs are often inspirational and downright infectious, he is no stranger to the utilization of sexually expressive imagery to an often comical degree. In preparation for his upcoming album, The Buffet, Kelly sat down with New York Magazine to discuss this irksome question, and how his past relates to the music he is currently making.
According to the article, R. Kelly says he's "not attracted to underage girls," though his associates and staff seem to paint a different picture. The article says, "Kelly's former manager Barry Hankerson once wrote a letter to Kelly's lawyer in which he said their client needed to get help for his sexual compulsion toward underage girls." Further, R. Kelly's friend and former assistant Demetrius Smith wrote a memoir entitled The Man Behind the Mask, in which he wrote, "Underage girls had proven to be [Kelly's] weakness. He was obsessed. Sickly addicted."
The article also includes moments in which the writer, David Marchese, is allowed listening access to Kelly's new album The Buffet. Kelly said he had written 462 songs for the album and has "enough songs to put out six or seven albums a year if [he] wanted."
The article was written based on the question of how to enjoy the artist's music given his past troubles. Responding to a question about the charges he's racked up over the years, Kelly replied, "I feel like I got a million people hating me, I've got maybe 8 million loving me. So I've got 9 million talking about me, and in a strange, magical way, it keeps me in the game."
However, the interviewer wasn't satisfied, and later pushed Kelly for a more substantive response. When asked if he was attracted to underage girls, Kelly responded, ""That's a rumor that comes from the Earth, like all rumors. No. It's not true. I love women, period. If I wasn't a celebrity, people wouldn't be saying these things about me."
