It seems like a useless argument to try to defend, as it is publicly documented that in August 1994, 27-year-old Kelly married the rising superstar Aaliyah, then 15 years old, in a hush-hush ceremony in a hotel room in Chicago.
Among the stack of crimes against Kelly, prosecutors claim he bribed an Illinois official to secure a fake ID for Aaliyah who would indicate her age as 18 so they could marry.
Read also: R. Kelly Trial: Potential Jurors May Be Asked Disturbing Questions Favorable to the Rapper
It’s a strange twist of fate that the start of Kelly’s lawsuit against the sex trade in New York City, where the deceased singer is listed as a Jane Doe in the case, also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the 22-year-old’s tragic plane crash death on August 25, 2001.
That may be why her uncle and former manager Barry Hankerson, after two decades, is finally releasing his entire music catalog, with Spotify and his record label Blackground Records confirming the news Thursday.
But still, as the trial is set to get underway, and every mention of Aaliyah certainly becomes the focus of headlines, it’s time for the media to reckon with how they removed the alleged abuse the teenager was subjected to.
It’s something that is always stuck with the acclaimed music journalist and author Kathy Iandoli, whose book Baby Girl: Better known as Aaliyah is set for release on August 17 from Atria Books.
“It really started to bother me because I realized we never give Aaliyah the credit for being a survivor,” Iandoli told The Daily Beast. “All we remember about her life, in the end, is that she did not survive a plane crash.
But she survived something far greater than we never gave her the credit for because we mistakenly made it, we misspelled it. We decided they were a ‘couple’. I would do a disservice to her title as a survivor if I did not at least discuss what happened. ”
At the time, while Kelly and Aaliyah’s marriage was considered scandalous, there was no real outrage directed at Kelly.
ONE Atmosphere front leaf from a leaf addressing the controversial marriage, Kelly described it as simply a “super freak” when the journalist wondered if Aaliyah’s appeal to Kelly was because he was “lame and unable to cope with the mind of an adult girl.”
There was no real concern for Aaliyah other than snarky questioning how her parents let this happen. Instead, the marriage was portrayed as just another celebrity scandal – a mentor fell for his mentee, a recurring Hollywood trend with older men dating much younger women.
It also did not help that Aaliyah’s debut album, which Kelly’s fingerprints were over, had the title: Age is nothing but a number.
Looking back, Iandoli feels that Aaliyah failed, even as a teenager, and was curved on stage and essentially blacklisted by the music industry over the annulled marriage, while Kelly had no consequences.
Now, as the evidence rises against Kelly, who has been followed by allegations about statutory rape of minors since 1996, was accused of producing child pornography in 2002, accused of running a sex cult in 2017, and now facing federal charges of sex trafficking and crime, Iandoli demands to know why Aaliyah has not received an apology and proper recognition as a survivor?
“The first two chapters describe how Kelly infiltrated all aspects of Aaliyah’s life …”
Iandoli says when she first started writing her book about Aaliyah’s life, music, and lasting legacy, she had no intentions of mentioning Kelly, felt the conversation was exhausted, and would not give him credit for Aaliyah’s success. But after watching Lifetime’s bombshell documentary Survives R. Kelly, she knew she had to tackle it.
And so she does. The first two chapters describe how Kelly infiltrated all aspects of Aaliyah’s life, first introduced through Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson, who discovered Kelly.
The two spent hours together, both inside the studio and outside over the course of nine months, while making Aaliyah’s first album. Iandoli noted that the lyrics were clearly from Kelly’s signature bump ‘n’ grind playbook, but this time “sung by a little girl.”
While advertising for the record, they played nicely. Aaliyah would only reveal that they were “very close” and that Kelly was her “best friend in the whole world.”
Kelly even dictated how Aaliyah would dress, steamroller stylists for the photoshoot of the album cover, insisted she would be dressed in baggy clothes, wear dark shades and even have an Illinois license plate – his home state – attached to the back of her jacket, despite Aaliyah hailing from Detroit and New York.
While Kelly’s behavior was dismissed as intrusive, it now serves as a disturbing exile. ONE condemning exposure of journalist Jim DeRogatis, who has been covering Kelly’s alleged sex crimes for a number of years, had worried parents and former members of Kelly’s team accused the singer of having run a sex cult.
They claimed that Kelly would make the young women in his entourage hide their figures in bagged clothes or tracksuits because he did not “want them to look appealing.”
When men entered the room, the girls were allegedly forced to turn around and face the wall to prevent men from looking at them. – mcutimes