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R kelly appeared to refer to his accusers and the sex trafficking charges for which he was arrested with the closing title track of his new album I admit it. The 55-year-old singer included a three-part sewer, totaling around 18 minutes, in which he confesses to a number of mistakes and appeared to be referring to the sexual misconduct allegations that had been made against him by several women.
On the track, Kelly admits many mistakes, including cheating on partners and being a victim of sexual abuse himself, but certain lines appear to refer to the incidents of abuse he has been accused of. “I done f**ked with a couple of fans,” he sings in the first verse via genius.
Alongside the line about fan relations, he also clapped back to his accusers and the media coverage surrounding him, and denied doing anything criminal. “You’re crazy, I’ve got some girlfriends,” he sings at one point. He also references his trial in which he was later found guilty. “They’re trying to lock me up like Bill,” he says, seemingly referring to it Bill Cosby. He also denied having sexual relations with underage girls.
I Admit It was first released in its entirety on SoundCloud in July 2018, months after the BBC documentary R. Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes had broadcast. The trail fell pretty much exactly a year after Journalist Jim DeRogatis published a detailed report on buzz feed that three sets of parents claimed Kelly kept their daughters in an “abusive cult.” Kelly credited Rogatis in the track, saying he’s been “trying to destroy me for 25 whole years,” citing Rogatis’ reporting on him going back to 2000.
It’s not clear exactly how Kelly’s new album was released on streaming services. Copyright is listed as Legacy Recordings owned by Sony Music on Apple Music and Spotify. Kelly was dropped by Sony in 2019 after many allegations were leveled against him. A representative of the company stated that the version of I admit it The streaming appearance is a bootleg and was not an official Legacy Recordings release diversity.
R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June on charges of sexual abuse and racketeering after being found guilty by a New York court in September 2021. In September, he was found guilty by a Chicago court on three counts of child pornography and is due to be sentenced in 2023.
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