More women make allegations against R. Kelly

Four more fresh sexual allegations against embattled US artist R. Kelly were published last Friday as the Women of Color branch within the #MeToo and #MuteRKelly crank up their campaigns.

Buzzfeed spoke to two women – one, a girlfriend from the ‘90s, and the mother of a current girlfriend who insists that her daughter has been “brainwashed”.

The piece was written by Jim DeRogatis, a long-time chronicler of the singer’s sexual habits.

On the same day, the Washington Post documented how the music business – included his record company RCA – continued to turn a blind eye to Kelly despite allegations going back 20 years.

Kelly’s former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, told the Post that he had warned veteran label executive Clive Calder, founder of Kelly’s first label, about his behaviour

Calder now says he was “not a psychiatrist” and added, “… This guy is a troubled guy. Clearly, we missed something.”

The Post also spoke to six women, two coming forward for the first time.

In the Buzzfeed article, Lizzette Martinez, now 41, claimed she met R. Kelly at a Miami mall in 1995 when she was 17 (age of consent in Florida is 18) and took her virginity.

“The first time I had sex with him there was a party going,” she said

“Some of his crew gave me alcohol and I was drunk basically when we had sex.”

In five different occasions he “pressured” her to have sex, and that over their four-year relationship, he was “controlling” in the way that she dressed, spoke and hung out with.

She said: “He was really overbearing… I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’

“But he has a way with people, with women. He’s just so controlling, so abusive.”

A Chicago woman Michelle claimed her daughter ‘N‘, now 27, began a relationship with the Chicago-based singer when she was 17, the age of consent in Illinois.

She said ‘N’ was still “brainwashed” and part of the Kelly “cult.”

When she first discovered the couple were having sex, Michelle reported it to the police and asked them to search R. Kelly’s mansion as her daughter would be there.

Michelle says the singer got ‘N’ to hide and refused police entry to his house.

At the time, Chicago police chief Jeff Chudwin told the Southtown Star: “[We] were informed of a possible criminal matter.

“We investigated the issues, found there to be no crime, and the matters have been closed.”

Michelle responded: “If they’d done their jobs, none of this would have happened.”

One of the two new accusers in the Washington Post was Tracy Sampson (now 35) who said they began having sex after she met him as a 16-year old intern at Epic Records.

She said she was pressured to have sex with another girl and filmed without her knowledge.

She had earlier settled a legal claim against him in which she promised not to discuss their relationship.

The other woman, Patrice Jones, said she was 17 when she fell pregnant to the singer, and he pressured her to have an abortion.

Kelly is said to be “heartbroken” by the accusations, and also calls the allegations and #MeToo and #MuteRKelly campaigns “the public lynching of a black man to destroy his legacy”.

According to a statement from the R. Kelly camp: “Mr. Kelly does not deny that during his youth and early success, he slept with many women, some of whom sought his company because of his success, and some of whom in later years now view their interaction with him negatively.

“He hopes and believes he treated his women friends well, and if any of them now feel differently about how they were treated, he respects their feelings and has no interest in attacking them or seeking to invalidate their feelings.”

As reported in TMN, there is a campaign calling for RCA to dump the singer; his lawyer, assistant, and publicist have resigned as allegations become public; Ticketmaster dropped him from a Chicago concert; and at least one radio presenter has dropped his music from his playlist.