Photo: Tim Mosenfelder (Getty Images)
R. Kelly is back in the news again for all the wrong reasons. BuzzFeedNews is reporting that the 50-year-old R&B star is running a cult, involving barely legal teens that are allegedly being held against their will.
Also: 5 Rappers Who Could Make America Great Again
In the alarming, in-depth report, concerned parents are accusing the“Bump & Grind” singer for using his celebrity status to promise their daughters music careers, only to “brainwash” them and use them for sex, (which he records) and subject them to controlling every last detail of their lives, from what they eat, who they communicate with to the color of the panties they wear.
“It was as if she was brainwashed. She looked like a prisoner — it was horrible,” said the mother of one of the girls who is working with the FBI and police in the ongoing investigation. “I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she’s in love and [Kelly] is the one who cares for her. I don’t know what to do. I hope that if I get her back, I can get her treatment for victims of cults. They can reprogram her. But I wish I could have stopped it from happening.”
An interesting footnote and or/twist in BuzzFeed News piece is that it was written by freelance journalist Jim DeRogatis, who was named as a witness in R. Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial (which he was acquitted from). As a Chicago Sun-Times music critic, he received a videotape in 2002, allegedly featuring R. Kelly and a 14-year-old girl. He turned the tape over to police.
If there’s one thing to learn from this salacious and sad story is to not entrust your teenage daughter with an R&B singer who wrote and produced an album by his then-15-year-old protégé, Aaliyah, entitled Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.
Go HERE to read the BuzzFeedNews article in full.
