"I'm the Ali of today. I'm the Marvin Gaye of today. I'm the Bob Marley of today. I'm the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now." R. Kelly, Hip Hop-Soul Magazine
Folks those are the words of a truly delusional man, R. Kelly. Usher has teamed up with said delusional man in Kelly's most recent video from Kelly's latest album, which was briefly the number one album in America. I am not posting the clip of the video of Usher doing a duet with R. Kelly. If you want to see it you can go to Young Black &Fabulous , SOHH or Concrete Loop.
For those of you not familiar with Mr. Kelly, he's an American R&B singer whose notable works include comparing a woman to a sport utility vehicle. He was rumored to be married to the singer AALIAH when she was 15 and he was 27. He also allegedly has a penchant for making tapes of his escapades including one with a current gospel recording artist when she was a teen. I am not going to rehash all of his alleged transgressions, you can go here and scroll down to "Sexual Allegations." ( That says a lot when the encyclopedia entry under your name includes an entire section on sexual allegations.) Kelly is most known however for allegedly having sex with a young girl on a now infamous video which purportedly shows him urinating on the alleged 14-year old girl. FYI, If you viewed or are in possession of one of the bootleg copies of that tape, you probably viewed or are in possession of child pornography-can you say 10 to 20?
Now according to Wiki, in 2002, "Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of having sexual intercourse with a minor. The charges, which were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, stemmed from a video tape allegedly showing Kelly having sex with a 14 year old girl. To date, Kelly still faces 14 of the original charges."
Taking a page out from the Russell Simmons School of Obfuscation and Redirection, most media outlets and blogs have gotten around those pesky allegations that a grown man has a penchant for raping young girls by devolving into the now manufactured debate of " Is he a child molester" versus " Is he a musical genius?" and then they twist their hands pondering "if he is a genius should it matter if he is a child molester?" Clearly not since everybody and their grandmama seems to be clamoring to do a duet and video with Kelly. These duet partners are not some fringe Hip Hop artists, but mainstream R&B stars Ciarra and now Usher. So I have two questions:
First, is there anything that can be done to young black women that might make people stop bopping their heads to a banging beat? I mean what indignity do you have to heap on Black girls and women before you become a social pariah?
Second, who the hell is prosecuting this case? It is the year 2007, Kelly was charged FIVE years ago! By now, his alleged victim would be a grown woman and likely far less sympathetic on the witness stand. So to the prosecutors I ask, WHAT ABOUT OUR DAUGHTERS? Would the state sit back and twiddle its thumbs if the victim was not an African American girl?
I mean we managed to investigate, charge, convict and sentence Scooter Libby in less than 5 years. I bet it won't take 5 years to convict William Jefferson. How long did it take to convict Scott Peterson? We managed to arrest, prosecute, convict and execute TIMOTHY MCVEIGH in SIX years! But we can't get a conviction when you allegedly got a man on TAPE? What is the hold up?
If Kelly was in fact a child molester, how many teen girls has he had an opportunity to molest and videotape since walking around in the land of the free?
What is sad is that I am certain that if Kelly came out TOMORROW and said " I did it!" "artists" would still be lining up to work with him because he is a "genius" and his alleged victims are merely young Black girls. So the next time you are bobbing your head to Kelly's next banging beat, ask yourself this:WHAT ABOUT OUR DAUGHTERS?
Usher's response is apparently " Who cares?"
PS. I wonder how much of a genius he would be if his album had tanked?
PPS. I am sure that plenty of serial killers have high IQ s?
