Surviving R Kelly (2019) s01e02 Episode Script
Hiding in Plain Sight
1 I felt like I could talk to him, you know? Like he was a normal person, not a celebrity.
Very welcoming.
Robert treated me very well.
Charismatic.
Funny.
Extremely caring.
He's hard not to like.
It was very romantic to me.
Our relationship was beautiful in the beginning.
But, um Didn't know about the storm on the horizon.
He would break you down.
He would turn around and say, "I'm the only one that loves you, I'm the only one who cares about you.
" I was mentally drained.
Robert feels as if he's invincible.
"I can't be touched.
" And in hindsight, in society, we kind of made him feel that way.
CRAIG WILLIAMS: He had a voice that was incredible.
CAREY KELLY: All the labels start calling, and that's when he took off.
JOHN LEGEND: His songs were a huge part of the soundtrack of our lives.
I heard a lot about Rob going to Kenwood High School.
I always wondered, what the heck is he doing hanging around the high school? KATHY CHANEY: He liked high school girls.
They were too young for him.
They were so vulnerable.
DEMETRIUS SMITH: I didn't want to believe that Robert was messing with Aaliyah because she was so young.
JOVANTE CUNNINGHAM: The door flew open on the bus.
Robert was having sex with Aaliyah.
JAMILAH LEMIEUX: A 15-year old girl.
CRAIG: Rob was the big star of Chicago at that time.
He was all over the radio, the radio loved him.
He had a lot of hit songs and they were playing his songs.
Chicago loved R.
Kelly.
TRACII McGREGOR: There was "Vibe," and he another big hit, "Honey Love.
" You had to know who R.
Kelly was.
MISS INFO: He was larger than life.
It was kind of like all of our hopes and dreams wrapped up into this artist.
Teenage girls definitely wanted to meet him, and I had heard lots of stories about girls who did.
TARANA BURKE: This is really about an adult man who is using the power of his fame and wealth and whatever to systematically degrade little black girls.
CRAIG: When you get type of power, you kind of lose perspective of reality.
Robert dated a lot of women from a lot of different cities.
We-We'd fly 'em in, we'd fly 'em out.
BRUCE: Robert likes younger women.
You have people who have fantasies about different things.
I like older women.
Go figure, you know? But that's just a preference.
It's a preference.
Everyone has preferences.
So, what is the big deal? What's the big issue with my brother? CRAIG: When I went down to the studio, I could see what kind of lifestyle Rob was living and what was going on in his life.
And it didn't look good to me.
There was a bedroom in the main room of the studio.
There was girls everywhere.
There was a young girl sitting, and she had to be, I don't-- I haven't checked her ID, I don't know, but anywhere between 15 to 17 to 18-- she was a teenager.
She was young.
You can tell what's young.
I don't know if they were together.
When I went to another room, there was a girl in that room.
With the lights out.
Waiting.
There was another girl in this lounge, over there.
Lights out, waiting.
And I'm telling Reed, my business partner, "What the hell is going on?" LIZZETTE: Robert he's hard not to like.
It's hard not to like him.
I was at a party at his house, and I didn't drink, but his friend gave me some alcohol.
So, I-I was really, like, hazy, and I remember he took me up to the room.
It was just a blur.
He went back to the party and I just kind of passed out.
It was my first sexual experience, and I didn't think it would be that way.
Sex with him felt not natural.
Visiting him, it was mainly about sex.
I felt like a sex object.
You know, he would just say, "I still want to, um, help you with your career.
" Music was my joy.
So I felt like my dreams are gonna come true.
I just kind of, like, listened to him and said okay, you know, and stayed there by myself.
He would have people follow me because he told me as much, "If you leave this hotel room or go anywhere, "I have my boys following you, and I know everything that you're doing.
" So I was very fearful.
Wouldn't hear from him for days, and then he would come back, and it was just sex and abu-- and-and mental and physical abuse.
TOURE: And here we have R.
Kelly, who's saying, "I will help you create a career.
" But he never intended to do that.
And, here again, women trying to move up in good faith.
"I am a singer, I will listen to you.
I will" And he's just like, "I'm just gonna take you and take your body.
" ORONIKE ODELEYE: A lot of the young women who became involved with him, a lot of them started from the same place that most people in the black community are, of, "I've heard those rumors, "but I don't believe that to be true.
"I'm an aspiring star, I'm not a gold digger.
"I'm not fast.
I'm not this, that, or the other.
I'm introduced to him or I get an opportunity to meet him.
" Um, and he's a charming, rich, famous person who has the ability to fly you around the world or, you know, buy you whatever you want or do whatever.
I mean, that's, that's a lot of temptation for somebody so young and naive.
LIZZETTE: The first time he was physically abusive, I was 17 and I-I said hello to someone that I shouldn't have, or I was looking at someone that I shouldn't have been looking at.
(scoffs) You know, so he didn't like that.
He took me outside and smacked me and said, like, "You can-- You're only supposed to look at me.
" And I don't understand this.
I just I just cried and said okay.
And then I did that going forward 'cause I didn't want to get-- I didn't want to anger him or get hit.
DR.
CANDICE NORCOTT: Anybody can be a victim of abuse.
However, there are certain contexts and certain characteristics that can make you more vulnerable.
Like inequal power dynamics.
Girls can go into a situation really wanting something and when somebody feels that they can hold that something over her head, "If you just do this with me," and the behavior and the exploitation can escalate.
INTERVIEWER: When did you find out that he was married? Maybe a year after they were married.
I never knew.
Never said anything.
My best friend said she heard it on the radio.
And I was, like, in shock.
We never spoke of the marriag.
He never told me about the marriage.
GEM: There were quite a few women, but there are only a couple of women in his life that-that I know of that he really loved.
Obviously, Aaliyah and my sister, Andrea Lee, at the time, now Kelly.
BRUCE: I was shocked that Robert married her.
It just looked like to me that they weren't compatible.
She just seemed different than, uh, what he was, uh, what he was accustomed to having.
ANDREA: My name is Andrea Kelly.
Born and raised in the Windy City.
My family says that I danced before I walked.
Dance is the reason why I met Robert.
A good friend of mine, Larry, convinced me to go to an audition.
I'm like, "Larry, I'm not going to an audition.
First of all, who the hell is R.
Kelly?" 'Cause I'd never heard of him at that point.
He's like, "No, you should come, it's dope.
"He's got this new song out called 'Sex Me.
' He's going on tour, he's looking for dancers.
" She killed it.
She was the best out of 400 girls.
I mean, Drea's probably one of the best dancers in the world.
ANDREA: This lady says, "You got the job.
He loved you.
" And that's how our worlds collide.
He was a go-getter, and that was amazing to me, to see somebody who, after sharing that he didn't read or wr-write well.
But you could create these amazing songs.
I was mesmerized.
There is a part of me that's like, "Wow, he is really a musical genius.
" I started to see a more gentle or, I-I'd rather say, vulnerable side.
He started to get to the point where he would ask me to teach him how to read.
Being able to share the loss of his mom With me, it was like, 100% wall down.
Down to the studs.
The nurturer that I am, you're thinking, "Okay, I'm not gonna be that person in his life "that turns a blind eye.
"I'm not gonna be that person in his life "that his story is falling on deaf ears.
"I'm gonna be that person in his life that's gonna love him through it.
" And it was actually beautiful in the beginning.
But, um Didn't know about the storm on the horizon.
DR.
KHADIJA MONK: Someone like R.
Kelly would use their vulnerability to make the victim comfortable.
And so, the victim would then feel, "Okay, well, they've shared this very private moment with me.
" And that's how you build trust.
Vulnerability, um, builds trust in that regard.
For many girls and women, it starts as, um, caring.
Feeling cared for.
Feeling paid attention to.
Um, and then getting lulled into, over time, more constricting and more abusive behavior.
I saw another side of him.
The dark side.
He would say, "You have to call me Daddy.
" I wasn't free to walk around.
If I wanted to use the restroom, I'd have to ask him.
If I was hungry, I have to ask him.
He came up once and grabbed me by my arm in the room and dragged me down the hallway because I talked back to him.
I was kicking and screaming and crying.
He told me to perform sexual acts while his friends were in the back seat and, like, humiliated me in front of everyone.
It was like he owned me.
R.
Kelly was definitely part of this milieu that also involved the Jacksons.
Uh, both Michael and Janet, who were, uh, connecting R & B to the mainstream.
BRUCE: Robert had actually did a remake on Janet, and when-when it did so well, that Mike liked it, and Mike wanted to work with Robert.
Robert was like, he was really thrilled, you know, to get a chance to produce Michael Jackson.
That was like a turn of his career.
He let me hear-- he said, "Who's this?" I listened to the song, I said, "That's easy.
That's Michael Jackson.
" "Come on, Bruce, man.
You don't even know your brother's own voice?" I said, "That's you?" He sang the song himself, right, and let Mike hear them.
And when Michael Jackson heard it, Michael said, (high-pitched voice): "Oh, my God, he sounds just like me.
" (chuckles) He just said that he had something, like, really special that he had been working on.
At this time, I'm a senior in high school, and I found out that I was pregnant.
And a few days later, I had a miscarriage.
When he wrote it, he was thinking of me.
So then he played it and he called the song "You Are Not Alone.
" NELSON GEORGE: R.
writes him a really great song about someone, um, dealing with the idea of isolation, which is a big theme in Michael's music.
JOVANTE: In hindsight, all of his songs, they're real stories.
They're about different people during those times in different situations that were occurring with him.
So, "Your Body's Callin'," things like that.
"Sex Me.
" Those are real stories.
"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.
" He meant that.
DR.
JODY ADEWALE: A perpetrator might isolate an individual.
It's easier for a perpetrator to abuse when that individual doesn't have resources.
BRUCE: Me and my brothers, we all have our ways with our girls.
We're very jealous guys.
We don't want our girls doing certain things.
You Y-You're not gonna see our girls talking too much to people, and all this.
That's-that's just the way we are.
ANDREA: Robert has a lot of rules for people, but he doesn't have many for himself.
Um, I think he wants to be perceived as the ultimate alpha male, when he's really the runt of the litter.
There was a rule, being on tour with him.
"The dancers do not communicate with my background singers, my band don't communicate with my dancers.
" He-he really ran it like a dictatorship.
Like, when we would walk in as dancers, we walked in in a single-file line.
We did not get to communicate with the other artists in the venue.
We had to stay in our dressing rooms until it was time for you to hit the stage.
My parents were trying to get a hold of me and they couldn't.
I did not know that my cell phone number was being changed.
And I believe he strategically did it so that he could have all this going on, and if I keep you locked away and keep you isolated, you don't get to see this other side.
BRUCE: We used to talk with Andrea and the other dancers and stuff and have fun.
But after they got married, no more of that.
Just-- you know, she-- it was like, she wouldn't even speak to us.
And it was hard to know if we could speak to her.
Robert chartered a plane with a banner that said, "Andrea, will you marry me?" (chuckles) And then the dude dropped down in a parachute with a ring.
And she said yeah.
So it was a secret ceremony.
He was really sneaky.
And I would have loved for his brothers to be there with him.
For memories, if nothing else.
Fame is one thing.
You know, but when you start to lose certain life's precious moments because of fame, I think I'd do without it.
I felt bad.
I could see that she wanted her people there, you know? She wanted her mom there, she wanted her dad there.
But that's Robert, though.
ANDREA: My wedding was a surprise wedding.
I did not know I was getting married.
We went to Colorado, and I remember coming into the hotel room, and there was violinists.
There's a cello player.
He had the cake, he had the food, he had everything, like he went over the top.
Like, Robert, what if I wanted to do it in a church? What if I wanted to wear a wedding dress? I don't think he even understands that you've now crossed that line from being generous to being controlling.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about what happened in the end.
What was the final straw? I caught mononucleosis from him.
And my mono turned into Guillain-Barré, where my whole body was completely paralyzed, and I almost didn't make it.
He sent my mother a thousand-dollar check.
I was in ICU for two, two and a half weeks.
I almost died.
He was nowhere to be found.
My best friend was very angry and said that I should stop seeing him.
"You're just going there, like, you're like a prostitute, really.
" That hurt but it was the truth.
All these things that I didn't want to be, I became.
He stole my life from me.
Being abused like this And I don't think he understands, girls that are young, how impressionable we are and how traumatic these experiences are.
They change you forever.
(sniffles) I decided to walk away.
I didn't want to be a victim anymore.
ANDREA: You fall in love with the charmer.
You fall in love with his brokenness.
And then, slowly, he lets the other one creep in.
He's a control freak.
Having to call him Daddy.
There should not be repercussions if I don't call you Daddy.
"I can control what you do, who you do it with, "how long you do it, where you go, what you wear, when you eat, when you sleep.
" (audience cheering) I honestly believe that he has a god complex.
ADEWALE: There's a concept we call learned helplessness that allows people to feel like "there's nothing I can do to change this situation.
" The more sensationalized idea of sexual abuse, if someone's tied to a bed or hidden in a closet.
(audience cheers) The chains and the handcuffs that we see are all psychological.
And they're learned from a perpetrator who's very skillful at manipulating an individual to do what he or she wants.
For example, often men will put out feelers out there.
"Put out a feeler to see who's willing to allow me to cross this boundary.
" So, for example, one might be, um, "Call me Daddy.
" Something simple like that.
"Call me Daddy.
" Okay, that's not the end of the world.
It's not gonna cause you to psychologically be stuck, but that's step one.
Step two, "Wear these types of clothes around me.
" Step three, "You can't move around the house unless I say so.
" So there's no real grandiose manipulation, it comes in a slow, step-by-step process.
And once you're in, it's really hard to get out.
SPARKLE: When I began working with R.
Kelly, I did background vocals.
I was hanging out with Robert at his crib.
You know, the fellas were around, and I was the only girl.
We were watching the Chicago Bulls playoff game.
And I kept hearing this knock.
And I'm just like, "Okay.
" Robert hasn't moved.
He's focused on the TV.
Knock again.
And I'm just like, "Do you hear that knock?" I'm like, "Somebody's knocking, Robert.
" And he leans back and he say, "Yeah.
" And she peeks out the door.
His wife Drea.
And I was like, "Oh, hell no," to myself.
She wanted to come down to grab a bite to eat.
She asked him, "Is it okay if I come down to grab some food?" And he was like, "Yeah, come on.
" And I was just like, "Wow.
Never could be me.
" INTERVIEWER: Did he lock you up? 'Cause we've heard stories where you were locked up.
Is that true? ANDREA: There are certain things that Robert has done to me that, that I'm not willing to talk about today because the pain, the disbelief, still.
And the darkness of it.
ADEWALE: Men or women, boys or girls stay in victimized situations due to something we call the "cycle of abuse.
" The-the first cycle of abuse is called the "honeymoon phase," where everything's great, everything's crimson and clover.
I give you everything you need.
I love you.
I give you the sexual attention, the emotional attention, the financial attention.
And then you start walking on eggshells.
Little things, like, if you would do something wrong, instead of saying, "Hey, do it this way" "Are you that stupid?" And you're like, "Why do I have to be stupid? "Just because I don't know how to do it, "it doesn't mean I'm stupid, "it just means that I haven't mastered it yet.
I don't know how to do it.
" Down to the way he wanted his pancakes made, with the crispy edges.
If they weren't crisp enough, uh "You made it wrong.
" It would be the smallest things that you think would not make the average person feel inadequate.
But you hear it enough, and you start thinking, "Okay, so, I'm not smart enough.
I don't make the pancakes right.
The milk was too cold.
" Then one time I make the milk too cold.
(stammers) "It shouldn't have been this cold" So you're just always on eggshells.
BRUCE: After the marriage, though, she got real quiet.
She was really quiet.
And I think that was how Robert wanted it, you know.
NORCOTT: Girls and women are relational in nature, which means that they develop and they thrive in connection with other people.
If an individual wants to come in and be that most important relationship in her life, then slowly, over time, he can use that position to guide her behavior.
So you'll start not doing things because "I don't want to irritate him.
This is a really important relationship.
" It's a slow process of isolation, of tailoring this person to what you want her to be and how you want her to act.
You don't even believe in your own sense of judgment after a while.
And you're trying to figure out: how do I get him back to the good space? Okay, I'll take responsibility for-- I'll just say it's my fault.
I'll say yes to whatever it is.
I'll apologize, 'cause if I can just get him back to the good guy, the one that I fell in love with, then I'm in a good space.
How do I stop it? How do I get you back? (crying): How do I get you back to the guy that asked me to help him to read? SPARKLE: When I began working with Robert, I thought he was a genius.
I definitely considered him as a mentor.
He also became family to me.
But he's-he's a controlling person.
Yeah.
JOVANTE: Sparkle has been around from the beginning.
From day one.
She's his original background vocalist.
I don't know if you've ever heard her sing, but she's got an amazing voice.
The octave range is, like, five.
And she would actually be in the studio for hours.
Robert and I spent a great amount of time together.
The process of working on my debut album was crazy.
All by myself Taking little man to church The concept for "Be Careful" came from controlling Robert.
He thought of the concept for the song, and he wanted it to now be a duet instead of just me singing.
Two years ago Didn't know you had male friends Wait a minute.
He thought of everything.
He thought of the video.
He thought of the clothing.
He's a visionary, so he thinks of the steps.
Where do we go now? And how do you want me to walk? And where do I want to see you and me driving down the street? And how do I flip my hair? He has all that down.
So, yeah, that's him.
Robert didn't allow pretty much anyone to speak to me.
I'm just walking around, "Hey, everybody, hey!" And then I'm just like, "What's going on? Why aren't these people speaking back?" Come to find out, they couldn't speak to me.
He wouldn't let them.
That's not me 'cause I'm gonna speak to everybody and anybody and whoever I want to speak to.
So, when I learned that, I would go out of my way to speak to people just to tick him off, because I'm just like, "Look, you can't tell me what I can "and cannot do.
I'm not that girl.
I'm not that chick.
You can't stifle me.
" But I didn't know that a bomb was coming.
BRUCE: Robert, he loves basketball.
I-I think he think he's, uh, Michael Jordan.
We used to go to Michael's house every weekend.
Play basketball against him and his sons.
He was thrilled about Space Jam project.
They actually sent Robert footage of Mike doing basketball moves slow-- in slow motion.
He used to sit up and watch this footage and say, "Wow.
Look at him.
He just soars.
" "He just flies.
" He just came out with it.
I believe I can touch the sky.
And just started singing it.
"Hey, that's it, that's it, that's it!" I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky.
"I Believe I Can Fly" is a powerful song, and a lot of people have sung it at talent shows, it's one of those songs that inspired a lot of people.
It was everywhere.
Kindergarten graduations I believe I can fly.
LEMIEUX: High school graduations.
SINGER: I believe I can touch the sky.
-And in churches.
- Think about it Every night and day.
It was just massive.
It was a huge, huge song.
It was a moment of redemption in some people's eyes and ears.
People were amazed that this guy who was very pornographic in other contexts could walk in and do something spiritual.
Religious.
It was genius.
LEMIEUX: I wonder, considering that the most famous thing that R.
Kelly has ever done was "I Believe I Can Fly," did that, on some level, make people feel comfortable with him as somebody who was an entertainer for children? Or somebody who was a good gu? GEORGE: All these pop stars pick their titles, right? "I'm the Pied Piper of R & B.
" The Pied Piper was a, you know, a children's character who played a flute, I believe, and children would follow him down the road to whatever he was leading them.
So, he literally pitched a metaphor for seducing young children with music.
ABDON PALLASCH: If you grew up in Chicago, y-you've heard about R.
Kelly.
My son used to like Space Jam, so I had to watch "I Believe I Can Fly," the opening to Space Jam, about a hundred times when my son was two years old.
Everything he put out at this point now was just a hit.
And not just on the R & B charts.
Like, he was now a bona fide pop artist.
CRAIG: He won three Grammys that year.
And, boy, did his head blow up big at that point.
Uh, he became untouchable in his mind.
R.
Kelly was one of those people hiding in plain sight.
And sometimes we, as a society, are so in denial of people that we admire, that we don't want to see it.
My name is Lisa Van Allen.
I was 17 years old when I met Rob.
A friend of mine-- his girlfriend was going to a video shoot.
She was an aspiring singer, and he didn't want her to go by herself, so he asked me if I could go with her to the video shoot.
It was for "Home Alone" with him and Keith Murray.
Everyone was dancing, it was pretty upbeat.
At some point, I guess he saw me, and he had his cousin come over to me and say, "Rob wants to talk to you.
" You know, I was kind of surprised when I actually ended up meeting him 'cause I-I just thought I'd be the last one he would try to talk to because I was probably the youngest one there.
Rob was sitting near the pool, and he was being really, really nice, and he asked me how old I was, and I told him I was 17.
And he asked me, "Will your mother let you come to Chicago?" I knew he was at least 31, so I thought, when I said 17, that he'd be like-- you know, like, that was gonna be the deal breaker.
But, um, it wasn't.
SPARKLE: Young girls are impressionable.
Like, he's R.
Kelly.
"Now, look who I get.
Look who is showing me interest.
" He's charismatic, funny.
And he's an all-around nice guy.
But Robert is a mass manipulator.
Like, everybody knows it now.
They didn't know it back then.
LISA: I had heard about Rob's reputation, about him dating Aaliyah, but I didn't assume that he liked younger girls.
I just thought, at that moment, I just thought he liked me.
He actually had me go on the bus, his tour bus.
He wanted me to take off the little dressy clothes I had on.
It went into him suggesting sexual acts like oral and sex.
I felt like I shouldn't have done that so fast, but at the same time, I didn't want to tell him no, I guess, because I was young.
(chuckles) Pretty much, and I just didn't want to tell him no.
I thought he might be upset or, you know, not like me 'cause I-I chose not to do it.
I pretty much stayed on the bus in his T-shirt, and in between scenes, he would come back and forth on the bus until he finished shooting.
We exchanged phone numbers, and he told me to go straight to the car and go straight home.
When I first introduced my niece to Robert, it was at 12 years old.
I asked my sister and my brother-in-law to bring her down to the studio to meet him.
She was a rapper.
She was a-a-a dope rapper, too, like, she was Bow Wow status when Bow Wow was the (bleep) back then.
She was that status.
I wanted him to do what he was doing for me for her because, like, I saw that hunger, I saw that drive.
I saw that wanting to be bigger than life, if you will, 'cause she was that, she was totally that.
And he saw it, too.
Initially, my niece would come down to the studio with me 'cause she wanted to see the ins and outs of-of how I was working and just be around the vibe of it all.
She would sit on the couch.
I would go in the booth and do my thing and I wouldn't take my eyes off her.
There were a couple times that I came into the studio while I was still, um, under Rockland, that my niece would be in the studio room.
And I would walk in like, "What you doing here?" "Who's here with you?" And she's like, "Oh, I got dropped off.
"Robert's having a Christmas party "or some type of party and there's gonna be a lot of kids, "so we're all gonna stay, you know, at his house and, you know, have games and" So then I was just like, "Okay.
" I was pissed when I saw her in the studio by herself.
My parents were strict.
We couldn't stay over or be around nobody's house.
We couldn't spend the night at nobody's house if they had boys.
You're just with Robert being supervised? Okay.
I thought I left my niece in good hands.
But think of a grown man hanging out with young girls.
It just felt like I just shouldn't have introduced them.
Something ain't right.
I actually waited about a month before I called him.
He was pretty blunt.
"When can you get to Chicago?" I told my mother the truth about where I wanted to go and who I was going to see.
I think she knew that she really couldn't keep me from going because I already had made my mind up that I was going.
It just went from the first visit, me going back home, the second visit, to pretty much where I just didn't end up leaving.
I just would stay.
In the beginning, sex happened at the studio a lot.
In the studio he had bedrooms, so you didn't really have to go anywhere.
It was pretty exciting for a young girl.
CRAIG: Chicago Trax was a really, really big place.
There's a bedroom in the middle of Studio A, the big room, where Rob had built a big queen-sized bed, and, you know, I'm like, "Wow" I thought that was quite strange.
LISA: I felt special.
I actually thought that I was his girlfriend.
You know, I was li-living up there at that point.
We were together all the time, you know.
I had no reason to question that we weren't.
Life in the studio, it was kind of boring for the most part.
You really couldn't have much interaction other than, uh Well, I couldn't have much interaction with anyone other than Robert.
At that time I didn't know what a runner was, but, um, later on, I realized it was just, you know, the people that work at the studio, and they pretty much, pretty much, like, run errands.
My mom would, um, call the studio.
The runners would actually let Robert know that I had a phone call, and then he would let them know to, like, transfer the call to me.
I do know that there were times where, when she would get through, and she'd be upset and saying she couldn't contact me and things like that.
So it very well could've been times where she was calling and they weren't allowed to put me through.
One time, one of his friends came to the studio and he's speaking to everyone, and just a normal reaction, you speak back.
Um, Rob would get upset and say, "You're not supposed to speak to them.
"You don't speak to anybody.
You just look straight forward.
If they speak to you, you don't say anything.
" Pretty early on, he kind of introduced you to everything that he was into.
It was instructed to call him Daddy during sex, but it went from that to pretty much all time, he'd be Daddy.
The first time Robert had me do a sexual act with him and another female, he actually told me it was going to be his first time and he wanted to do it with me.
He would say things like, um, "Well, you know, if you love me, you won't try to change me.
" You know, "If you love me, you'll accept me how I am.
" You know, "If you love me, you'll do these things for me.
" So those would be the little pep talks he would give me.
Robert would film our sex acts sometimes.
He would never ask me if, um, it was okay to be filmed, but he never hid the camera or anything like that.
Once we did the threesome, it became more frequent.
Then he started introducing me to other young women.
The time that sticks out the most in my head.
We had went to an awards show, and I had a great day.
He had, had me buy this pretty gown.
It was just me and him.
It made me feel special.
When we got back to the house this young girl was there, and, um, he called her down.
He told me that she was 16 and she was a neighbor.
The way he had put it was kind of like, he was trying something different.
You know, like, new, you know, with including her.
We all went into the, uh, gym, and he had the Space Jam stuff all on the wall.
And he pulled a-a futon mattress out of one of the rooms.
And he brought it out there and laid it out.
He pulled out his camera and his tripod, and, uh, I started crying when we started, uh, to have sex.
I didn't want to do it, and, uh, he got upset.
And he was like, um, "What am I gonna do with this?" He's like, "I can't watch this with you on here crying.
" He didn't care that I was crying; he was upset because he couldn't watch it because I was crying.
He's, uh, coaching us through the whole thing.
He's telling me, "Lee-lee, lay down.
" He's having us perform oral on each other.
He starts to have, uh, intercourse with both of us.
She seemed to be, like, know how things went without him really telling her much of anything.
He was more instructing me, you know.
And, um, I kind of felt like they've been there before, doing this.
And once, um, everything's done, uh, she gets up and goes into the bathroom and, uh, she stays there until we're gone.
But that wasn't the only place that we had sex with the young girl.
We did also in one of his trailers for one of his video shoots.
The other time was in the Colorado room, which is the wood room in the basement.
He did tape us there as well.
LISA: It took a while for me to get to that point where I really realized, it wasn't just me that was young that he liked.
It wasn't a mistake with Aaliyah.
It took a while for me to just really think to myself and figure out, "You know what? This man really has a problem.
" Like, it's bigger than me and Aaliyah.
It's a problem.
POWERS: There are two ways that an artist can hide in plain sight.
One is to veil your bad behavior in good works, good music.
Music that is uplifting and transcendent.
These are the artists who, when we hear that they, uh, say, were involved in domestic violence, for example, or, uh, predatory behavior, we're horrified, we can't believe it.
R.
Kelly did a little of that with, uh, his inspirational songs and his kind of gospel side.
The other way to hide in plain sight is to create outrageous art.
Art in which you are embodying the very stereotype, uh, that your private life seems to fulfill.
R.
Kelly did this with extremely obscene songs about explicit sex acts that also used humor and outrageous metaphors.
R.
Kelly also did this in his performances, which were increasingly pornographic.
-(crowd cheers) -(R.
Kelly singing) So R.
Kelly created and occupied a position of outrageousness that kind of masked everything that was happening behind the scenes.
LISA: We'd be in the studio, and he'd have her parents in the studio and he would actually, um, pretend as if he cared that she was young.
It surprised me because I knew that he was having sex with her, but he would put up this front for her parents.
He knows that he's sleeping with this young girl.
Him and I both were actually having sex with her.
But I didn't know at the time that she was actually 14.
I mean, I didn't know that side of him.
You know, lying to her parents to get them to trust, uh, him with their child.
Two years later, we were headd to one of his video shoots, and he actually had other females that he was cool with or had a sexual relationship with.
The only time he would want you to communicate with them would be during the sexual act.
Other than that, you don't speak to each other.
You act like each other don't exist, but I sparked up a conversation, even though I wasn't supposed to.
She had said something about getting a car.
And I asked her-- she said when she turns 16 she's gonna get a car.
And I was-- I asked her, "Aren't you already 16? Weren't you already 16?" And she said, "No, no, I'm 15.
I'm about to be 16.
" It rang a bell in my head at that moment.
It made me feel, like, sick to my stomach.
It made me feel disgusted 'cause all of the sexual encounters were before I found out she was 14.
(crying): It still haunts me, you know? It shouldn't have happened.
I should have never introduced her to him.
Like, how dare you? How dare you? One day an anonymous video was dropped off.
Hard-core porn.
This grown man urinating in the mouth of a child.
A lot of people saw that pee tape.
It was circulating in the streets.
To see it visually, it (bleep) me up.
Should've never happened.
That set everything off.
ANDREA: I'm pregnant.
I was under so much stress.
They couldn't find his heartbeat.
That's when that day happened.
D.
A.
: Mr.
Kelly has been indicted.
There's been a warrant issued for his arrest.
Very welcoming.
Robert treated me very well.
Charismatic.
Funny.
Extremely caring.
He's hard not to like.
It was very romantic to me.
Our relationship was beautiful in the beginning.
But, um Didn't know about the storm on the horizon.
He would break you down.
He would turn around and say, "I'm the only one that loves you, I'm the only one who cares about you.
" I was mentally drained.
Robert feels as if he's invincible.
"I can't be touched.
" And in hindsight, in society, we kind of made him feel that way.
CRAIG WILLIAMS: He had a voice that was incredible.
CAREY KELLY: All the labels start calling, and that's when he took off.
JOHN LEGEND: His songs were a huge part of the soundtrack of our lives.
I heard a lot about Rob going to Kenwood High School.
I always wondered, what the heck is he doing hanging around the high school? KATHY CHANEY: He liked high school girls.
They were too young for him.
They were so vulnerable.
DEMETRIUS SMITH: I didn't want to believe that Robert was messing with Aaliyah because she was so young.
JOVANTE CUNNINGHAM: The door flew open on the bus.
Robert was having sex with Aaliyah.
JAMILAH LEMIEUX: A 15-year old girl.
CRAIG: Rob was the big star of Chicago at that time.
He was all over the radio, the radio loved him.
He had a lot of hit songs and they were playing his songs.
Chicago loved R.
Kelly.
TRACII McGREGOR: There was "Vibe," and he another big hit, "Honey Love.
" You had to know who R.
Kelly was.
MISS INFO: He was larger than life.
It was kind of like all of our hopes and dreams wrapped up into this artist.
Teenage girls definitely wanted to meet him, and I had heard lots of stories about girls who did.
TARANA BURKE: This is really about an adult man who is using the power of his fame and wealth and whatever to systematically degrade little black girls.
CRAIG: When you get type of power, you kind of lose perspective of reality.
Robert dated a lot of women from a lot of different cities.
We-We'd fly 'em in, we'd fly 'em out.
BRUCE: Robert likes younger women.
You have people who have fantasies about different things.
I like older women.
Go figure, you know? But that's just a preference.
It's a preference.
Everyone has preferences.
So, what is the big deal? What's the big issue with my brother? CRAIG: When I went down to the studio, I could see what kind of lifestyle Rob was living and what was going on in his life.
And it didn't look good to me.
There was a bedroom in the main room of the studio.
There was girls everywhere.
There was a young girl sitting, and she had to be, I don't-- I haven't checked her ID, I don't know, but anywhere between 15 to 17 to 18-- she was a teenager.
She was young.
You can tell what's young.
I don't know if they were together.
When I went to another room, there was a girl in that room.
With the lights out.
Waiting.
There was another girl in this lounge, over there.
Lights out, waiting.
And I'm telling Reed, my business partner, "What the hell is going on?" LIZZETTE: Robert he's hard not to like.
It's hard not to like him.
I was at a party at his house, and I didn't drink, but his friend gave me some alcohol.
So, I-I was really, like, hazy, and I remember he took me up to the room.
It was just a blur.
He went back to the party and I just kind of passed out.
It was my first sexual experience, and I didn't think it would be that way.
Sex with him felt not natural.
Visiting him, it was mainly about sex.
I felt like a sex object.
You know, he would just say, "I still want to, um, help you with your career.
" Music was my joy.
So I felt like my dreams are gonna come true.
I just kind of, like, listened to him and said okay, you know, and stayed there by myself.
He would have people follow me because he told me as much, "If you leave this hotel room or go anywhere, "I have my boys following you, and I know everything that you're doing.
" So I was very fearful.
Wouldn't hear from him for days, and then he would come back, and it was just sex and abu-- and-and mental and physical abuse.
TOURE: And here we have R.
Kelly, who's saying, "I will help you create a career.
" But he never intended to do that.
And, here again, women trying to move up in good faith.
"I am a singer, I will listen to you.
I will" And he's just like, "I'm just gonna take you and take your body.
" ORONIKE ODELEYE: A lot of the young women who became involved with him, a lot of them started from the same place that most people in the black community are, of, "I've heard those rumors, "but I don't believe that to be true.
"I'm an aspiring star, I'm not a gold digger.
"I'm not fast.
I'm not this, that, or the other.
I'm introduced to him or I get an opportunity to meet him.
" Um, and he's a charming, rich, famous person who has the ability to fly you around the world or, you know, buy you whatever you want or do whatever.
I mean, that's, that's a lot of temptation for somebody so young and naive.
LIZZETTE: The first time he was physically abusive, I was 17 and I-I said hello to someone that I shouldn't have, or I was looking at someone that I shouldn't have been looking at.
(scoffs) You know, so he didn't like that.
He took me outside and smacked me and said, like, "You can-- You're only supposed to look at me.
" And I don't understand this.
I just I just cried and said okay.
And then I did that going forward 'cause I didn't want to get-- I didn't want to anger him or get hit.
DR.
CANDICE NORCOTT: Anybody can be a victim of abuse.
However, there are certain contexts and certain characteristics that can make you more vulnerable.
Like inequal power dynamics.
Girls can go into a situation really wanting something and when somebody feels that they can hold that something over her head, "If you just do this with me," and the behavior and the exploitation can escalate.
INTERVIEWER: When did you find out that he was married? Maybe a year after they were married.
I never knew.
Never said anything.
My best friend said she heard it on the radio.
And I was, like, in shock.
We never spoke of the marriag.
He never told me about the marriage.
GEM: There were quite a few women, but there are only a couple of women in his life that-that I know of that he really loved.
Obviously, Aaliyah and my sister, Andrea Lee, at the time, now Kelly.
BRUCE: I was shocked that Robert married her.
It just looked like to me that they weren't compatible.
She just seemed different than, uh, what he was, uh, what he was accustomed to having.
ANDREA: My name is Andrea Kelly.
Born and raised in the Windy City.
My family says that I danced before I walked.
Dance is the reason why I met Robert.
A good friend of mine, Larry, convinced me to go to an audition.
I'm like, "Larry, I'm not going to an audition.
First of all, who the hell is R.
Kelly?" 'Cause I'd never heard of him at that point.
He's like, "No, you should come, it's dope.
"He's got this new song out called 'Sex Me.
' He's going on tour, he's looking for dancers.
" She killed it.
She was the best out of 400 girls.
I mean, Drea's probably one of the best dancers in the world.
ANDREA: This lady says, "You got the job.
He loved you.
" And that's how our worlds collide.
He was a go-getter, and that was amazing to me, to see somebody who, after sharing that he didn't read or wr-write well.
But you could create these amazing songs.
I was mesmerized.
There is a part of me that's like, "Wow, he is really a musical genius.
" I started to see a more gentle or, I-I'd rather say, vulnerable side.
He started to get to the point where he would ask me to teach him how to read.
Being able to share the loss of his mom With me, it was like, 100% wall down.
Down to the studs.
The nurturer that I am, you're thinking, "Okay, I'm not gonna be that person in his life "that turns a blind eye.
"I'm not gonna be that person in his life "that his story is falling on deaf ears.
"I'm gonna be that person in his life that's gonna love him through it.
" And it was actually beautiful in the beginning.
But, um Didn't know about the storm on the horizon.
DR.
KHADIJA MONK: Someone like R.
Kelly would use their vulnerability to make the victim comfortable.
And so, the victim would then feel, "Okay, well, they've shared this very private moment with me.
" And that's how you build trust.
Vulnerability, um, builds trust in that regard.
For many girls and women, it starts as, um, caring.
Feeling cared for.
Feeling paid attention to.
Um, and then getting lulled into, over time, more constricting and more abusive behavior.
I saw another side of him.
The dark side.
He would say, "You have to call me Daddy.
" I wasn't free to walk around.
If I wanted to use the restroom, I'd have to ask him.
If I was hungry, I have to ask him.
He came up once and grabbed me by my arm in the room and dragged me down the hallway because I talked back to him.
I was kicking and screaming and crying.
He told me to perform sexual acts while his friends were in the back seat and, like, humiliated me in front of everyone.
It was like he owned me.
R.
Kelly was definitely part of this milieu that also involved the Jacksons.
Uh, both Michael and Janet, who were, uh, connecting R & B to the mainstream.
BRUCE: Robert had actually did a remake on Janet, and when-when it did so well, that Mike liked it, and Mike wanted to work with Robert.
Robert was like, he was really thrilled, you know, to get a chance to produce Michael Jackson.
That was like a turn of his career.
He let me hear-- he said, "Who's this?" I listened to the song, I said, "That's easy.
That's Michael Jackson.
" "Come on, Bruce, man.
You don't even know your brother's own voice?" I said, "That's you?" He sang the song himself, right, and let Mike hear them.
And when Michael Jackson heard it, Michael said, (high-pitched voice): "Oh, my God, he sounds just like me.
" (chuckles) He just said that he had something, like, really special that he had been working on.
At this time, I'm a senior in high school, and I found out that I was pregnant.
And a few days later, I had a miscarriage.
When he wrote it, he was thinking of me.
So then he played it and he called the song "You Are Not Alone.
" NELSON GEORGE: R.
writes him a really great song about someone, um, dealing with the idea of isolation, which is a big theme in Michael's music.
JOVANTE: In hindsight, all of his songs, they're real stories.
They're about different people during those times in different situations that were occurring with him.
So, "Your Body's Callin'," things like that.
"Sex Me.
" Those are real stories.
"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.
" He meant that.
DR.
JODY ADEWALE: A perpetrator might isolate an individual.
It's easier for a perpetrator to abuse when that individual doesn't have resources.
BRUCE: Me and my brothers, we all have our ways with our girls.
We're very jealous guys.
We don't want our girls doing certain things.
You Y-You're not gonna see our girls talking too much to people, and all this.
That's-that's just the way we are.
ANDREA: Robert has a lot of rules for people, but he doesn't have many for himself.
Um, I think he wants to be perceived as the ultimate alpha male, when he's really the runt of the litter.
There was a rule, being on tour with him.
"The dancers do not communicate with my background singers, my band don't communicate with my dancers.
" He-he really ran it like a dictatorship.
Like, when we would walk in as dancers, we walked in in a single-file line.
We did not get to communicate with the other artists in the venue.
We had to stay in our dressing rooms until it was time for you to hit the stage.
My parents were trying to get a hold of me and they couldn't.
I did not know that my cell phone number was being changed.
And I believe he strategically did it so that he could have all this going on, and if I keep you locked away and keep you isolated, you don't get to see this other side.
BRUCE: We used to talk with Andrea and the other dancers and stuff and have fun.
But after they got married, no more of that.
Just-- you know, she-- it was like, she wouldn't even speak to us.
And it was hard to know if we could speak to her.
Robert chartered a plane with a banner that said, "Andrea, will you marry me?" (chuckles) And then the dude dropped down in a parachute with a ring.
And she said yeah.
So it was a secret ceremony.
He was really sneaky.
And I would have loved for his brothers to be there with him.
For memories, if nothing else.
Fame is one thing.
You know, but when you start to lose certain life's precious moments because of fame, I think I'd do without it.
I felt bad.
I could see that she wanted her people there, you know? She wanted her mom there, she wanted her dad there.
But that's Robert, though.
ANDREA: My wedding was a surprise wedding.
I did not know I was getting married.
We went to Colorado, and I remember coming into the hotel room, and there was violinists.
There's a cello player.
He had the cake, he had the food, he had everything, like he went over the top.
Like, Robert, what if I wanted to do it in a church? What if I wanted to wear a wedding dress? I don't think he even understands that you've now crossed that line from being generous to being controlling.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about what happened in the end.
What was the final straw? I caught mononucleosis from him.
And my mono turned into Guillain-Barré, where my whole body was completely paralyzed, and I almost didn't make it.
He sent my mother a thousand-dollar check.
I was in ICU for two, two and a half weeks.
I almost died.
He was nowhere to be found.
My best friend was very angry and said that I should stop seeing him.
"You're just going there, like, you're like a prostitute, really.
" That hurt but it was the truth.
All these things that I didn't want to be, I became.
He stole my life from me.
Being abused like this And I don't think he understands, girls that are young, how impressionable we are and how traumatic these experiences are.
They change you forever.
(sniffles) I decided to walk away.
I didn't want to be a victim anymore.
ANDREA: You fall in love with the charmer.
You fall in love with his brokenness.
And then, slowly, he lets the other one creep in.
He's a control freak.
Having to call him Daddy.
There should not be repercussions if I don't call you Daddy.
"I can control what you do, who you do it with, "how long you do it, where you go, what you wear, when you eat, when you sleep.
" (audience cheering) I honestly believe that he has a god complex.
ADEWALE: There's a concept we call learned helplessness that allows people to feel like "there's nothing I can do to change this situation.
" The more sensationalized idea of sexual abuse, if someone's tied to a bed or hidden in a closet.
(audience cheers) The chains and the handcuffs that we see are all psychological.
And they're learned from a perpetrator who's very skillful at manipulating an individual to do what he or she wants.
For example, often men will put out feelers out there.
"Put out a feeler to see who's willing to allow me to cross this boundary.
" So, for example, one might be, um, "Call me Daddy.
" Something simple like that.
"Call me Daddy.
" Okay, that's not the end of the world.
It's not gonna cause you to psychologically be stuck, but that's step one.
Step two, "Wear these types of clothes around me.
" Step three, "You can't move around the house unless I say so.
" So there's no real grandiose manipulation, it comes in a slow, step-by-step process.
And once you're in, it's really hard to get out.
SPARKLE: When I began working with R.
Kelly, I did background vocals.
I was hanging out with Robert at his crib.
You know, the fellas were around, and I was the only girl.
We were watching the Chicago Bulls playoff game.
And I kept hearing this knock.
And I'm just like, "Okay.
" Robert hasn't moved.
He's focused on the TV.
Knock again.
And I'm just like, "Do you hear that knock?" I'm like, "Somebody's knocking, Robert.
" And he leans back and he say, "Yeah.
" And she peeks out the door.
His wife Drea.
And I was like, "Oh, hell no," to myself.
She wanted to come down to grab a bite to eat.
She asked him, "Is it okay if I come down to grab some food?" And he was like, "Yeah, come on.
" And I was just like, "Wow.
Never could be me.
" INTERVIEWER: Did he lock you up? 'Cause we've heard stories where you were locked up.
Is that true? ANDREA: There are certain things that Robert has done to me that, that I'm not willing to talk about today because the pain, the disbelief, still.
And the darkness of it.
ADEWALE: Men or women, boys or girls stay in victimized situations due to something we call the "cycle of abuse.
" The-the first cycle of abuse is called the "honeymoon phase," where everything's great, everything's crimson and clover.
I give you everything you need.
I love you.
I give you the sexual attention, the emotional attention, the financial attention.
And then you start walking on eggshells.
Little things, like, if you would do something wrong, instead of saying, "Hey, do it this way" "Are you that stupid?" And you're like, "Why do I have to be stupid? "Just because I don't know how to do it, "it doesn't mean I'm stupid, "it just means that I haven't mastered it yet.
I don't know how to do it.
" Down to the way he wanted his pancakes made, with the crispy edges.
If they weren't crisp enough, uh "You made it wrong.
" It would be the smallest things that you think would not make the average person feel inadequate.
But you hear it enough, and you start thinking, "Okay, so, I'm not smart enough.
I don't make the pancakes right.
The milk was too cold.
" Then one time I make the milk too cold.
(stammers) "It shouldn't have been this cold" So you're just always on eggshells.
BRUCE: After the marriage, though, she got real quiet.
She was really quiet.
And I think that was how Robert wanted it, you know.
NORCOTT: Girls and women are relational in nature, which means that they develop and they thrive in connection with other people.
If an individual wants to come in and be that most important relationship in her life, then slowly, over time, he can use that position to guide her behavior.
So you'll start not doing things because "I don't want to irritate him.
This is a really important relationship.
" It's a slow process of isolation, of tailoring this person to what you want her to be and how you want her to act.
You don't even believe in your own sense of judgment after a while.
And you're trying to figure out: how do I get him back to the good space? Okay, I'll take responsibility for-- I'll just say it's my fault.
I'll say yes to whatever it is.
I'll apologize, 'cause if I can just get him back to the good guy, the one that I fell in love with, then I'm in a good space.
How do I stop it? How do I get you back? (crying): How do I get you back to the guy that asked me to help him to read? SPARKLE: When I began working with Robert, I thought he was a genius.
I definitely considered him as a mentor.
He also became family to me.
But he's-he's a controlling person.
Yeah.
JOVANTE: Sparkle has been around from the beginning.
From day one.
She's his original background vocalist.
I don't know if you've ever heard her sing, but she's got an amazing voice.
The octave range is, like, five.
And she would actually be in the studio for hours.
Robert and I spent a great amount of time together.
The process of working on my debut album was crazy.
All by myself Taking little man to church The concept for "Be Careful" came from controlling Robert.
He thought of the concept for the song, and he wanted it to now be a duet instead of just me singing.
Two years ago Didn't know you had male friends Wait a minute.
He thought of everything.
He thought of the video.
He thought of the clothing.
He's a visionary, so he thinks of the steps.
Where do we go now? And how do you want me to walk? And where do I want to see you and me driving down the street? And how do I flip my hair? He has all that down.
So, yeah, that's him.
Robert didn't allow pretty much anyone to speak to me.
I'm just walking around, "Hey, everybody, hey!" And then I'm just like, "What's going on? Why aren't these people speaking back?" Come to find out, they couldn't speak to me.
He wouldn't let them.
That's not me 'cause I'm gonna speak to everybody and anybody and whoever I want to speak to.
So, when I learned that, I would go out of my way to speak to people just to tick him off, because I'm just like, "Look, you can't tell me what I can "and cannot do.
I'm not that girl.
I'm not that chick.
You can't stifle me.
" But I didn't know that a bomb was coming.
BRUCE: Robert, he loves basketball.
I-I think he think he's, uh, Michael Jordan.
We used to go to Michael's house every weekend.
Play basketball against him and his sons.
He was thrilled about Space Jam project.
They actually sent Robert footage of Mike doing basketball moves slow-- in slow motion.
He used to sit up and watch this footage and say, "Wow.
Look at him.
He just soars.
" "He just flies.
" He just came out with it.
I believe I can touch the sky.
And just started singing it.
"Hey, that's it, that's it, that's it!" I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky.
"I Believe I Can Fly" is a powerful song, and a lot of people have sung it at talent shows, it's one of those songs that inspired a lot of people.
It was everywhere.
Kindergarten graduations I believe I can fly.
LEMIEUX: High school graduations.
SINGER: I believe I can touch the sky.
-And in churches.
- Think about it Every night and day.
It was just massive.
It was a huge, huge song.
It was a moment of redemption in some people's eyes and ears.
People were amazed that this guy who was very pornographic in other contexts could walk in and do something spiritual.
Religious.
It was genius.
LEMIEUX: I wonder, considering that the most famous thing that R.
Kelly has ever done was "I Believe I Can Fly," did that, on some level, make people feel comfortable with him as somebody who was an entertainer for children? Or somebody who was a good gu? GEORGE: All these pop stars pick their titles, right? "I'm the Pied Piper of R & B.
" The Pied Piper was a, you know, a children's character who played a flute, I believe, and children would follow him down the road to whatever he was leading them.
So, he literally pitched a metaphor for seducing young children with music.
ABDON PALLASCH: If you grew up in Chicago, y-you've heard about R.
Kelly.
My son used to like Space Jam, so I had to watch "I Believe I Can Fly," the opening to Space Jam, about a hundred times when my son was two years old.
Everything he put out at this point now was just a hit.
And not just on the R & B charts.
Like, he was now a bona fide pop artist.
CRAIG: He won three Grammys that year.
And, boy, did his head blow up big at that point.
Uh, he became untouchable in his mind.
R.
Kelly was one of those people hiding in plain sight.
And sometimes we, as a society, are so in denial of people that we admire, that we don't want to see it.
My name is Lisa Van Allen.
I was 17 years old when I met Rob.
A friend of mine-- his girlfriend was going to a video shoot.
She was an aspiring singer, and he didn't want her to go by herself, so he asked me if I could go with her to the video shoot.
It was for "Home Alone" with him and Keith Murray.
Everyone was dancing, it was pretty upbeat.
At some point, I guess he saw me, and he had his cousin come over to me and say, "Rob wants to talk to you.
" You know, I was kind of surprised when I actually ended up meeting him 'cause I-I just thought I'd be the last one he would try to talk to because I was probably the youngest one there.
Rob was sitting near the pool, and he was being really, really nice, and he asked me how old I was, and I told him I was 17.
And he asked me, "Will your mother let you come to Chicago?" I knew he was at least 31, so I thought, when I said 17, that he'd be like-- you know, like, that was gonna be the deal breaker.
But, um, it wasn't.
SPARKLE: Young girls are impressionable.
Like, he's R.
Kelly.
"Now, look who I get.
Look who is showing me interest.
" He's charismatic, funny.
And he's an all-around nice guy.
But Robert is a mass manipulator.
Like, everybody knows it now.
They didn't know it back then.
LISA: I had heard about Rob's reputation, about him dating Aaliyah, but I didn't assume that he liked younger girls.
I just thought, at that moment, I just thought he liked me.
He actually had me go on the bus, his tour bus.
He wanted me to take off the little dressy clothes I had on.
It went into him suggesting sexual acts like oral and sex.
I felt like I shouldn't have done that so fast, but at the same time, I didn't want to tell him no, I guess, because I was young.
(chuckles) Pretty much, and I just didn't want to tell him no.
I thought he might be upset or, you know, not like me 'cause I-I chose not to do it.
I pretty much stayed on the bus in his T-shirt, and in between scenes, he would come back and forth on the bus until he finished shooting.
We exchanged phone numbers, and he told me to go straight to the car and go straight home.
When I first introduced my niece to Robert, it was at 12 years old.
I asked my sister and my brother-in-law to bring her down to the studio to meet him.
She was a rapper.
She was a-a-a dope rapper, too, like, she was Bow Wow status when Bow Wow was the (bleep) back then.
She was that status.
I wanted him to do what he was doing for me for her because, like, I saw that hunger, I saw that drive.
I saw that wanting to be bigger than life, if you will, 'cause she was that, she was totally that.
And he saw it, too.
Initially, my niece would come down to the studio with me 'cause she wanted to see the ins and outs of-of how I was working and just be around the vibe of it all.
She would sit on the couch.
I would go in the booth and do my thing and I wouldn't take my eyes off her.
There were a couple times that I came into the studio while I was still, um, under Rockland, that my niece would be in the studio room.
And I would walk in like, "What you doing here?" "Who's here with you?" And she's like, "Oh, I got dropped off.
"Robert's having a Christmas party "or some type of party and there's gonna be a lot of kids, "so we're all gonna stay, you know, at his house and, you know, have games and" So then I was just like, "Okay.
" I was pissed when I saw her in the studio by herself.
My parents were strict.
We couldn't stay over or be around nobody's house.
We couldn't spend the night at nobody's house if they had boys.
You're just with Robert being supervised? Okay.
I thought I left my niece in good hands.
But think of a grown man hanging out with young girls.
It just felt like I just shouldn't have introduced them.
Something ain't right.
I actually waited about a month before I called him.
He was pretty blunt.
"When can you get to Chicago?" I told my mother the truth about where I wanted to go and who I was going to see.
I think she knew that she really couldn't keep me from going because I already had made my mind up that I was going.
It just went from the first visit, me going back home, the second visit, to pretty much where I just didn't end up leaving.
I just would stay.
In the beginning, sex happened at the studio a lot.
In the studio he had bedrooms, so you didn't really have to go anywhere.
It was pretty exciting for a young girl.
CRAIG: Chicago Trax was a really, really big place.
There's a bedroom in the middle of Studio A, the big room, where Rob had built a big queen-sized bed, and, you know, I'm like, "Wow" I thought that was quite strange.
LISA: I felt special.
I actually thought that I was his girlfriend.
You know, I was li-living up there at that point.
We were together all the time, you know.
I had no reason to question that we weren't.
Life in the studio, it was kind of boring for the most part.
You really couldn't have much interaction other than, uh Well, I couldn't have much interaction with anyone other than Robert.
At that time I didn't know what a runner was, but, um, later on, I realized it was just, you know, the people that work at the studio, and they pretty much, pretty much, like, run errands.
My mom would, um, call the studio.
The runners would actually let Robert know that I had a phone call, and then he would let them know to, like, transfer the call to me.
I do know that there were times where, when she would get through, and she'd be upset and saying she couldn't contact me and things like that.
So it very well could've been times where she was calling and they weren't allowed to put me through.
One time, one of his friends came to the studio and he's speaking to everyone, and just a normal reaction, you speak back.
Um, Rob would get upset and say, "You're not supposed to speak to them.
"You don't speak to anybody.
You just look straight forward.
If they speak to you, you don't say anything.
" Pretty early on, he kind of introduced you to everything that he was into.
It was instructed to call him Daddy during sex, but it went from that to pretty much all time, he'd be Daddy.
The first time Robert had me do a sexual act with him and another female, he actually told me it was going to be his first time and he wanted to do it with me.
He would say things like, um, "Well, you know, if you love me, you won't try to change me.
" You know, "If you love me, you'll accept me how I am.
" You know, "If you love me, you'll do these things for me.
" So those would be the little pep talks he would give me.
Robert would film our sex acts sometimes.
He would never ask me if, um, it was okay to be filmed, but he never hid the camera or anything like that.
Once we did the threesome, it became more frequent.
Then he started introducing me to other young women.
The time that sticks out the most in my head.
We had went to an awards show, and I had a great day.
He had, had me buy this pretty gown.
It was just me and him.
It made me feel special.
When we got back to the house this young girl was there, and, um, he called her down.
He told me that she was 16 and she was a neighbor.
The way he had put it was kind of like, he was trying something different.
You know, like, new, you know, with including her.
We all went into the, uh, gym, and he had the Space Jam stuff all on the wall.
And he pulled a-a futon mattress out of one of the rooms.
And he brought it out there and laid it out.
He pulled out his camera and his tripod, and, uh, I started crying when we started, uh, to have sex.
I didn't want to do it, and, uh, he got upset.
And he was like, um, "What am I gonna do with this?" He's like, "I can't watch this with you on here crying.
" He didn't care that I was crying; he was upset because he couldn't watch it because I was crying.
He's, uh, coaching us through the whole thing.
He's telling me, "Lee-lee, lay down.
" He's having us perform oral on each other.
He starts to have, uh, intercourse with both of us.
She seemed to be, like, know how things went without him really telling her much of anything.
He was more instructing me, you know.
And, um, I kind of felt like they've been there before, doing this.
And once, um, everything's done, uh, she gets up and goes into the bathroom and, uh, she stays there until we're gone.
But that wasn't the only place that we had sex with the young girl.
We did also in one of his trailers for one of his video shoots.
The other time was in the Colorado room, which is the wood room in the basement.
He did tape us there as well.
LISA: It took a while for me to get to that point where I really realized, it wasn't just me that was young that he liked.
It wasn't a mistake with Aaliyah.
It took a while for me to just really think to myself and figure out, "You know what? This man really has a problem.
" Like, it's bigger than me and Aaliyah.
It's a problem.
POWERS: There are two ways that an artist can hide in plain sight.
One is to veil your bad behavior in good works, good music.
Music that is uplifting and transcendent.
These are the artists who, when we hear that they, uh, say, were involved in domestic violence, for example, or, uh, predatory behavior, we're horrified, we can't believe it.
R.
Kelly did a little of that with, uh, his inspirational songs and his kind of gospel side.
The other way to hide in plain sight is to create outrageous art.
Art in which you are embodying the very stereotype, uh, that your private life seems to fulfill.
R.
Kelly did this with extremely obscene songs about explicit sex acts that also used humor and outrageous metaphors.
R.
Kelly also did this in his performances, which were increasingly pornographic.
-(crowd cheers) -(R.
Kelly singing) So R.
Kelly created and occupied a position of outrageousness that kind of masked everything that was happening behind the scenes.
LISA: We'd be in the studio, and he'd have her parents in the studio and he would actually, um, pretend as if he cared that she was young.
It surprised me because I knew that he was having sex with her, but he would put up this front for her parents.
He knows that he's sleeping with this young girl.
Him and I both were actually having sex with her.
But I didn't know at the time that she was actually 14.
I mean, I didn't know that side of him.
You know, lying to her parents to get them to trust, uh, him with their child.
Two years later, we were headd to one of his video shoots, and he actually had other females that he was cool with or had a sexual relationship with.
The only time he would want you to communicate with them would be during the sexual act.
Other than that, you don't speak to each other.
You act like each other don't exist, but I sparked up a conversation, even though I wasn't supposed to.
She had said something about getting a car.
And I asked her-- she said when she turns 16 she's gonna get a car.
And I was-- I asked her, "Aren't you already 16? Weren't you already 16?" And she said, "No, no, I'm 15.
I'm about to be 16.
" It rang a bell in my head at that moment.
It made me feel, like, sick to my stomach.
It made me feel disgusted 'cause all of the sexual encounters were before I found out she was 14.
(crying): It still haunts me, you know? It shouldn't have happened.
I should have never introduced her to him.
Like, how dare you? How dare you? One day an anonymous video was dropped off.
Hard-core porn.
This grown man urinating in the mouth of a child.
A lot of people saw that pee tape.
It was circulating in the streets.
To see it visually, it (bleep) me up.
Should've never happened.
That set everything off.
ANDREA: I'm pregnant.
I was under so much stress.
They couldn't find his heartbeat.
That's when that day happened.
D.
A.
: Mr.
Kelly has been indicted.
There's been a warrant issued for his arrest.