Emily Bayardo
Staff Writer
On January 3rd, 2019 the groundbreaking Lifetime six part documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly” had its first airing and quickly gained rapid attention and exposure.Within the first airing of “Surviving R. Kelly”, an average of 2.1 million people had tuned in to watch. The documentary includes about 50 interviews with women, musicians, and fellow family members who reveal the honest truth surrounding Kelly’s contro- versy. Survivors and those who know Kelly person-
ally revealed the legal charges of the R&B star and
even bring forward new allegations concerning Kelly. The horrendous, raw, unimaginable details of Kelly’s sexual misconduct towards underaged girls is revealed throughout the series. “Surviving R. Kelly” goes further into depth showing how family members and even how it had affected Kelly’s ex wife Andrea Kelly. All of these
individuals proceeded to tell their stories in hope to reveal the secrets that have been so “hush hush” within the music community.
Kelly had faced charges in 2008 for child pornogra- phy and then had reports surface again back in 2017. Throughout all the legal commotion, Kelly is seen to have been completely unaffected. As evidence, countless witnesses, and other incriminating evidence piled up, Kelly was always unphased.
After the reports in 2017 had light shed on them, many activists came out from the shadows to protest Kelly in response to the inexcusable behavior.The twit- ter hashtag #MuteRKelly had quickly became trending with about 2.6 million tweeting under the hashtag. The hashtag called on those in the music industry to stop working with Kelly. Along with this hashtag, came the twitter movement #MeToo where victims of sexual assault came forward with their stories and banded together in order to expose the issue and come togeth- er in hopes for justice. Inclusively,The National Sexaul Assault Hotline had reported an increase of 20 percent in calls since the program’s air date. Since then, another
criminal investigation was opened on Kelly in Geor- gia.The State Authority of Cook County Illinois urged women and anyone else that has had any experience with Kelly to come forward in order to alert author- ities. Since then, two women who had previously not reported their experience, have appeared and contacted authorities.
Since the airing of the documentary, radio stations across the nation had began banning Kelly’s music. Mu- sicians such as Lady Gaga, Chance the Rapper, and John Legend have spoken out about Kelly denouncing his predatory behavior. Lady Gaga has even apologized for collaborating with him and pulled her song “Do What UWant” from streaming platforms. Kelly’s record label RCA Records has been distancing themselves from him and have allegedly dropped him.
It seems as if Kelly’s 25 years of allegations and charges have finally caught up with him. Kelly has yet to respond or comment on the questions asked by Life- time and the documentary.The final episode date was January 5th of this year and can be streamed now on Lifetime and Hulu.