R. Kelly On Trial

As we all might remember, about 6 years ago a video flooded the internet and news outlets of R. Kelly performing sexual acts (pissing, screwing etc.) with a 14 year old girl. It was a little disturbing and completely enthralling for about a month or so, then it went away. The only thing that seemed to change was R. Kelly's balancing act between Disney-friendly household anthems like "I Believe I can Fly," and his more explicit street persona. No jail time? No lengthy trial? No sobbing testimonies from attention hungry young victims? He just got dirtier? More lewd, more incendiary! It makes sense i guess, considering after the video debacle even the most oblivious parents wouldn't dare buy their kid an R. Kelly CD. Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards? Out of the picture. But after a public embarrassment of that magnitude, not to mention the legal implications, I guess you'd just expect someone to clean up their act, attempt to repair their tarnished public image. But not R. Kelly, no-sir-ree-bob. It's as if the scandal gave voice to an R. Kelly stifled by inimitable expectation. A man freed from the bondage of censorship. Kelly stood up in the face of mass ridicule, to the very enforcers of a puritanical status quo and said "no sir, I won't." And its for this perhaps why we love him most.

But the saga doesn't stop there. R. Kelly is on trial after 6 years of postponement, and with a defense no stronger than "It's not me!" The prosecution will attempt to prove that it was in fact R. Kelly who is the man in the video, and that the girl was in fact under the legal age of consent. If convicted, R. Kelly will face up to 15 years behind bars, and god knows what fines and penalties will follow. All is not well in the R. Kelly camp, but we salute him. Not necessarily for his questionable sexual morals, but for his tenacity. There is an R. Kelly in us all, and we can only hope to exhibit his brand of conviction when the shit hits the fan. Or, in this case, the piss.