R. Kelly Blasted for Bootleg Album Drop: 'Most Shameless Thing Since O.J.'

Many were shocked and appalled on Friday following the news that disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly had seemingly dropped a bootleg new album—while behind bars.

Kelly, whose name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in September of multiple child porn-related charges in a Chicago federal trial. Separately, he received a 30-year sentence in June after jurors found him guilty of nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Kelly's 13-track LP is reportedly titled I Admit It and briefly appeared on Apple News and Spotify before being taken down.

The embattled singer's name began to trend on Twitter on Friday when many social media users expressed dismay at the news.

"R Kelly dropping this album from PRISON is the most shameless thing I've seen since OJ wrote the book about killing his wife," Bleacher Report journalist Tyler Conway tweeted.

User @IceQuebe_ tweeted on Friday morning: "An R. Kelly album in 2022 is nuts. Checking for it is nuts. It being titled 'I Admit It' is nuts."

Others, though, admitted that they were intrigued by the fresh tracks.

"R Kelly done dropped a damn album from jail... I feel horrible because I wanna damn listen to it [frowny face emoji]," actress Masika Kalysha said in a tweet.

And while many social media users were surprised to see new Kelly music manifest while he serves time in prison, some drew parallels to the show Empire, which at one point depicted the fictional main character—a music mogul who lands in trouble with the law—recording a new single while decked out in his orange jumpsuit.

Billboard reported Friday that the album was somehow uploaded to streaming services by Ingrooves, a Universal Music Group-owned distributor, not Kelly's label nor his team. However, Ingrooves execs quickly asked for the album to be pulled after learning of the record drop.

The article continued: "Now, the source says, Ingrooves is in the process of investigating what went wrong internally and is severing a relationship with the label Real Talk Entertainment, which released the album on a sub-label called Legacy Recordings—the same name as Sony's imprint."

Real Talk Entertainment didn't immediately return Newsweek's request for comment.

Some listeners have taken to dissecting Kelly's latest release. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the album features "I Admit," a 19-minute song that was first released via SoundCloud back in 2018. On Kelly's new album, though, it was reportedly divided into three parts.

The Wrap noted in 2018 that "I Admit" includes the seemingly damning chorus: "I admit it / I did it." Kelly was facing allegations of pedophilia at the time and claims that he was holding women as sex slaves.

He also sings in the track: "I admit I f*** wit all the ladies / That's both older and young ladies / But tell me how they call it 'pedophile' because of that s*** / That's crazy."

Later on, the infamous singer apparently rails against allegations that he was the mastermind of a so-called sex cult.

"What's the definition of a 'cult'? / What's the definition of a 'sex slave'?" Kelly croons. "Go to the dictionary / Look it up / Let me know / I'll be here waiting."

Update 12/9/22, 5:37 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.

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