Already jailed for 30 years on his 2021 sex trafficking conviction, singer R. Kelly got 20 more in a Chicago courtroom today on charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor. He will serve all but one year concurrently with the earlier sentence, ruled U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber.
The sentencing hearing is the culmination of nearly three decades of allegations Kelly had sexually abused underage girls, accusations first laid out in the Chicago Sun-Times. In 2002, Kelly was indicted on child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with an unidentified underage girl, but he was acquitted in 2008. Through the allegations, Kelly was one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1990s and 2000s, known for hit songs "Bump N' Grind," "Ignition (Remix)" and "I Believe I Can Fly," which won him three Grammy Awards. He has been nominated for 26 Grammy Awards in all, including as recently as 2015.
Kelly getting away with it in his earlier case freed him to be quite blatant about what he was up to. Here's footage from that deranged concert in Ethiopia where he sung a song about how to be sex trafficked by him. "Did you get your shots? Do you have your passport? Did you get your shots? America. America. America. America. America. America."
