R Kelly sparks outrage after writing 25 albums and ‘releasing song from jail’
'Please do your time in silence'.
R Kelly could be hoping to revive his music career from behind bars as he reportedly released a newly recorded verse, which quickly prompted backlash.
The disgraced singer, 58, is currently serving a 31-year combined sentence in jail after convictions of child pornography, racketeering, and sex trafficking.
He recently appeared on a podcast, Inmate Tea with A&P, claiming he had written 25 albums while incarcerated and dubbing singing ‘a beautiful disease that’s incurable.’
Through the prison phone, Kelly appears to have recorded a remixed version of Chris Brown’s song Residuals.
Brown released the track in 2024 but artists started to record their own verses in a trend last month.
Jumping on the viral moment, music producer Rodney East posted the audio clip to Instagram and claimed it was a real recording, not an AI fake.
He is serving 31 years in prison over child sexual abuse, sex trafficking and racketeering (Picture: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)The recording starts with a woman’s voice stating, ‘This call is from a federal prison’ before Kelly says his name.
A voice which resembles Kelly sings, asking where his money is and who is ‘getting paid for [his] grind’.
‘Who gave you 34 years? Who made you billions of dollars?’ the vocal continues. ‘Who put the “R” in “R&B,” swear that it’s killing me. Am I still making you holler?’
In the caption, East wrote: ‘Big Bro Decided 2 Pull up On The Challenge. No AI, The Real Deal… IYKYK???? Voice Is Definitely Missed Out Here????????.’
Questions over the validity of the track has been raised as Kelly can be heard on the backing vocals too, which would have required multiple calls due to the two-minute time limit.
Afterwards, someone else would have been required to mix the verse over Brown’s beat, assuming it was real.
There are numerous AI remakes using artists’ voices around, so it is very possible the verse was made using this software in some way.
Regardless of the validity behind the track, there has been a backlash to attempts to ‘soft launch’ Kelly back into music.
On X, Jody_McFly wrote: ‘They really tryna soft launch R. Kelly back into the world. Why is he singing a Residuals Remix on a jail phone man ????????????????’
‘Why is R.Kelly remixing Residuals???? please do your time in silence,’ added _DEactivate.
‘R. Kelly, Robert Kelly. Don’t matter how you name or frame it, he’s a sexual predator,’ slammed AmandaDannielle. ‘You like sexually predatory music if you still wanna listen to his music that bad.’
Yagurlknic said the Residuals challenge was ‘officially ruined’ by the singer as thagirlanna asked why he was doing it when he was in jail.
‘They praising R Kelly cause he sang Residuals good, like yall don’t stand for s**t ever,’ _sydkyd said of those claiming the verse was good.
Others pointed out that Brown also has a felony conviction for assaulting Rihanna in 2009, so fans shouldn’t support his music either.
Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes in Chicago in 2023 while already serving a 30-year prison sentence over sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York.
The judge ruled he could serve 19 years at the same time, meaning the child sex crimes only added one year to his existing sentence.
His convictions included three counts of coercing minors into sexual activity and three of producing sex tapes involving a minor.
Kelly claims he’s written 25 albums behind bars (Picture: Antonio Perez – Pool via Getty Images)Last year, his estranged daughter Buku Abi alleged that she endured sexual abuse at the hands of her father in a harrowing documentary, R Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.
She said: ‘He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person that he would do something to me.
‘I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.’
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, denied these claims at the time in a statement to People.
They said: ‘His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded.’
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