A shocking report from BuzzFeed claims that R. Kelly is holding women against their wills in what one parent described as a “cult.”
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer, who has had numerous brushes with the law, including his rumored marriage with a then-15-year-old Aaliyah and the original celebrity pee tape, reportedly keeps six women in homes in Chicago and Atlanta, and “controls every aspect of their lives: dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.” Cheryl Mack, who worked as R. Kelly’s personal assistant beginning in 2013, called him a “master at mind control.”
Mack, [Kitti] Jones, and [Asante] McGee claim that women who live with Kelly, who he calls his “babies,” are required to call him “Daddy” and must ask his permission to leave the Chicago recording studio or their assigned rooms in the “guest house” Kelly rents near his own rented mansion in suburban Atlanta. A black SUV with a burly driver behind the wheel is almost always parked outside both locations. Kelly confiscates the women’s cell phones, they said, so they cannot contact their friends and family; he gives them new phones that they are only allowed to use to contact him or others with his permission. Kelly films his sexual activities, McGee and Jones said, and shows the videos to men in his circle. (Via)
If the women (all of whom are of legal consenting age, although claims have been that the singer “regularly abused his position of fame and influence to pursue illegal sexual relationships with underage girls”) break his rules, Kelly “punishes them physically and verbally,” according to Mack and Jones. “I got trapped,” the latter told BuzzFeed. “I had people telling me I was an idiot. But it took me a long time to realize they were right, and I’m talking now because I hope I can help some of these other girls.” You can read the report here.
(Via BuzzFeed)
