Aside from a few statements from his representatives and a brief social media video about cancelled shows, R. Kelly has chosen to remain quiet amid mounting allegations of sexual assault, kidnapping, and other heinous acts.
Now, a new video has surfaced online of R. Kelly dismissing his critics.
via Spin:
“It’s too late, they should have did this shit 30 years ago,” he says, seemingly referring to movements like #MuteRKelly, which has called for his banishment from the music industry after allegations that he sexually abuses women. “I’ve got a million motherfuckers hating me, and 40 billion motherfuckers loving me,” he says at another point.
The video shows Kelly speaking to a group of men that seems to include former NBA forward Antoine Walker, a native of the R&B singer’s Chicago hometown. After Kelly’s toast, the man gives his own speech in support of Kelly. The video was first posted last Thursday, May 18, by another Chicago man named Remus Jackson IV, who can be seen narrating the video at times. It gained wider notice after a clip was uploaded to Twitter and Facebook by an attorney and media personality named Exavier Pope, who told Spin he first saw the video because Walker was tagged in it on Facebook. Pope recorded the video from Facebook Live and reposted it because he “deemed it extremely newsworthy,” he said.
…
“I want to propose a toast to all the strong motherfuckers in here right now,” Kelly says to finish his speech in the video. “Motherfuckers like you is why I still continue to do, because I have a basketball mentality. As long as I got the ball, the world is on defense.”
You can watch the newly-surfaced video below.
