prison,
I-I picture a-a 15-year-old boy in prison.
That's how I see him.
And I don't want to see him that way.
BRUCE KELLY: Robert is our brother.
He need us.
What he's facing, he may never get out.
That's a possibility.
This is karma.
I mean, what you do here you gonna pay for.
He's always felt that he was God. He felt like
he was above everything and everybody.
That he was untouchable.
[crying]
JAMILAH LEMIEUX: Reasonable people should be able to watch this
and really be on board with the need for consequences,
right, the need for
a reckoning with R. Kelly.
ORONIKE ODELEYE: After the first, the second, the third,
the fourth, the fifth, we could have said, "No more."
But then there was the sixth, the seventh, the eighth.
We could have stopped at that. Then there's the ninth,
the tenth, the 11th.
This has been going on for close to 30 years now
because of silence.
[crying]
It shouldn't have happened.
KANIKA JONES: He's done some
really sick things to a lot of people,
and, uh, he has to pay for it.
He's guilty of falling victim to his own
madness, his own God-like complex.
♪
[cheering]
ODELEYE: The parents of R. Kelly's survivors,
the judgment that they get
is horrific.
BRITTANY CUNNINGHAM: These young women
have continuously been put on trial themselves.
"What were you wearing that R. Kelly was attracted to?"
"Why did you present yourself as older than you were?"
"Why did your parents put you in this position?"
JIM DeROGATIS: The story here is,
how did he get away with this for 30 years?
It should have ended
with Tiffany Hawkins, victim number one.
TIFFANY HAWKINS: I was the first girl,
and nobody believed me.
DEMETRIUS SMITH: He married Aaliyah.
Aaliyah was like the sacrificial lamb for all that.
DeROGATIS: Tracy Sampson, her sexual contact begins when she is 17.
Patrice Jones at age 17.
She became pregnant.
A fourth public lawsuit, Montina Woods,
was videotaped.
Mr. Kelly has been indicted. There's been a warrant
issued for his arrest.
The block filled up with police cars.
[sirens wail]
ODELEYE: He was not guilty, even though the evidence was there.
DeROGATIS: I know the names of 48 women
whose lives Kelly has ruined.
48 women can't be lying.
Some of his alleged victims are speaking out
in a powerful new docuseries.
NEWSMAN: R. Kelly turned himself into Chicago police Friday night.
GERALD GRIGGS: If there's no problem
that she's with Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly,
she could easily speak to her two younger sisters.
CROWD [chanting]: Black girls matter.
Black girls, we love you.
-Joycelyn. -CROWD: We love you.
-Azriel. -CROWD: We love you.
-Joycelyn. -CROWD: We love you.
ODELEYE: Mute R. Kelly was really born
out of the work that the Savages were doing
to get their daughter back.
Just seeing their anguish and their pain
really inspired me to act and really to try to figure out
how to amplify their voice and the voice of all of the parents
and all of the women who have been coming forward.
Joycelyn, if you're seeing this message,
please know that I love you, I'm your mother,
I love you dearly.
ODELEYE: No parent should have to go on TV,
crying about their daughter being abused,
being kidnapped basically, being brainwashed,
being turned against them.
The Mute R. Kelly campaign got traction,
uh, both because of the fact that people were saying
that he was running a sex cult
and also the #MeToo movement.
Why should there be a-a movement
that was holding all these high-profile people accountable,
and yet R. Kelly
was still bumping and grinding his way
through the music industry?
Right after Gayle King,
we got a call
from Joycelyn.
Hi, Joycelyn. This is Mommy.
It was a planned call,
but in the midst of that call,
my youngest daughter Jori got on the phone...
Hey, Joycelyn.
It's Jori.
You could hear a break in her trance.
She would go... [stammers]
She didn't know what to say
unless somebody else pointed her to get back on track.
Now, he's trained these girls not to go against kids.
JONJELYN: And Jerhonda's confirmed that.
-Jerhonda had been telling me a few weeks prior to that... -Right.
Jori, our youngest daughter, needs to talk to Joycelyn
because they weren't trained
-to go against younger kids. -Right.
-We love you, Joycelyn. -We love you, Joycelyn.
Can you please come home?
[softly]: Can you please come home?
-Can you please come home? -I'm here, Joyce-- I'm here, Joycelyn.
Why haven't you been able to call?
Why haven't you been able to call anybody in your family
or friends?
I understand you're happy, but why haven't you been able
to call any of your family or your friends,
or come to your daddy's-- granddaddy's funeral?
And you know your grandmother has stage IV cancer.
You haven't called her, and they're very wary.
How would we know you're happy
when we don't hear from you in two years?
I love you, Joycelyn.
You have to go?
Mommy loves you, and no matter what no--
what nobody says, we love you.
TIM: She went to
say that she's wanting to get off the phone, or she's--
it's time for her to hang up now, like it's a prison call.
Exactly what I call it-- prison calls.
TIM: People don't understand, I have not seen
my daughter.
Robert's dictating when I talk to my daughter.
He's gonna make that call, and that's what he did on that day.
He made the call to tell my daughter to hang up the phone
and not to talk to my wife or talk to my kids.
He's in control at all times, and it's scary
not just for me
but for all these other families that's out here.
It's a control issue.
I pray to God that the law enforcement do their job
and put this man where he belong, behind bars.
'Cause it's gonna-- he's gonna explode.
Kelly was indicted on yet another 11 counts.
NEWSMAN: The new charges come three months
after Kelly was hit with a ten-count indictment.
NEWSMAN 2: Kelly already facing charges
involving four women, three of whom were underage
when they became his victims.
The charges include four Class X felony counts,
which carry mandatory prison time of six to 30 years.
One of the alleged victims has come forward publicly.
Jerhonda Pace tweeted yesterday,
"Yes, I am aware of the 11 new counts against R. Kelly.
Yes, all of the new counts are related to my case."
AZARI: Jerhonda Pace is the one victim
that overlaps in the two Cook County cases.
JERHONDA: To know that 11 of those counts belong to me, I was like,
"That's huge," and I felt good and I cried.
I was like, "Finally, a win. We-We're finally being heard."
I had been talking to the FBI
since the Savages came forward.
I believe it was sometime in 2017.
I wanted, uh, Rob to go to jail so that
Azriel and Joycelyn could be released.
And ever since then, like, I've just been
trying really hard to help them get their daughter.
JONJELYN: As a young girl, Joycelyn was always...
I can't say she was quiet, but she was active.
She was very hyper.
She was very hyper, but she was also very sweet.
She carried her feelings on her shoulders...
-TIM: Right. -...a lot of the times.
We would sing in-- at home,
in the car, on the way to Disney World.
We used to always go to Disney World
every year, that was the tradition.
Joycelyn's relationship to music was,
it was her passion.
Me and Joycelyn, we talked about going professional many times,
especially Joycelyn. She was the main one, like,
"I want to be a singer. I'm ready to, you know,
singing's gonna be my career."
My name is Emilio, and I was Joycelyn's producer.
My name is Antonio, and I was Joycelyn's songwriter.
Joycelyn was real serious about it. I mean,
she always, always want to listen to, um,
Ciara, Aaliyah every single day.
You know, she kind of getting inspired by that.
She, like, she literally practiced,
like, every single day just to make sure her vocals
and everything was on point.
Joy's goals was to be an actual artist in the industry,
a mainstream artist, not independent.
Joycelyn met R. Kelly because she was invited to
a concert.
They met after the concert backstage, and from there,
she did get a chance to communicate with him
and get his phone number.
R. Kelly did make promises
that what he would do for Joycelyn's career.
He promised that, uh, Sony Records would sign her,
he promised that he would help her with her music,
and none of those promises fell through at all.
A few days later, she had came over to our-- my house,
and she had said, she said, "Okay.
"I'm-I'm so nervous, and, like, I just, like,
I-I want to see is it real," you know, stuff like that,
so then when she called him, he picked up, we were like,
"Dang, it's actually him." We was like, "Wow,
it's the real guy."
He said he wanted
to help her out with her music,
and... 'cause we told her, we was like,
"Okay, like, you can literally get your foot in the door,
like, with this." I mean,
like, he can, you know. We all thinking it.
He wanted her to fly out or whatever.
She wanted to bring a friend with her.
All her friends was busy at the time.
She wanted to get me to go with her.
She told him about it, and he--
she told me that he was saying something like, "Oh, you know,
"I feel uncomfortable, you know,
"because, you know, he's a songwriter,
"and I feel uncomfortable with him being in the room,
seeing that we both do the same thing."
-But I was like, okay... -Basically, a bunch of BS,
-basically. -Yeah. [chuckles]
So, pretty much, she wound, she wound up
having to go by herself.
She went to Oklahoma.
After she had, you know, came back from Oklahoma,
'cause we picked her up from the airport,
and she told me, you know, like, she went to the show,
and after that, he wanted her to go back to the hotel.
He said that he gonna make sure
it stay about music and nothing else.
It's not gonna get personal or nothing like that.
'Cause she wasn't interested in him at the time.
She just wanted to do music.
And then she said he came to the door,
and he wanted her to sleep with him.
So then she was like,
"I don't know about this.
I don't want to, you know, do this," and she-- he was like,
"Don't be negative," said, "Look at this
as a positive of us growing close together."
Then, after that, she pretty much kind of
-gave in from there. -Just gave in.
Joycelyn parents, Tim and Jonjelyn,
did not know that she was flying back and forth.
She would make excuses and say that she going to, um, you know,
film for, like, be an extra in this show, or go to
a modeling little event thing.
That's what she'd tell them every single time,
but she let me know everything that was going on.
JAILYN: Joycelyn's best friend,
also a songwriter, had told my dad
that Joycelyn was messing with Robert.
At first, Joycelyn, she didn't want to really say nothing,
but somehow my dad
kept asking her, and she finally said, "Yes.
I did do something sexual with Robert."
Immediately, my dad and my mom told Joycelyn,
"You're not doing no more music."
You know, they just influenced her to go back to school.
Just go to school, go to college,
and focus on your work, nothing more, nothing else.
And so that's what she did. She went off to college,
and, you know, it was normal until around December of 2016.
JONJELYN: I found out that she was not
attending college on a regular basis,
that she was staying on dorm,
but she was coming to her classes,
but she was leaving and going to R. Kelly's house.
And I found out that she was not only just with him,
but she was also with other girls.
-At the time, it was at least five or six other girls. -Right.
And at that point,
I wanted to do some type of intervention with her.
After we found out that she was in communication with him,
she said that he wanted her to be a part of a girl group.
Come to find out, the girl group
were several girls that were with him in the past,
and one of the girls are still with him today.
They were, initially, supposed to be part
of this so-called girl group.
TIM: Joycelyn, Azriel, Dominique.
You had multiple girls that were supposed to be
a part of a girl group.
R. Kelly does make promises to the girls
that he gets involved with.
He-he seeks mostly the girls
that are looking to be in the entertainment industry.
She end up getting very mad, very defensive.
And it was just like, seeing her like that
was just like, "Joycelyn.
What-What's-what's going on, Joycelyn?"
I'm ready to go. Like, why I'm still...
Why are we still here?!
Her appearance changed. You know, she start--
She cut her hair off.
You know, she would wear sweatpants.
She started losing weight.
She was, like, almost...
She was just very skinny.
And it was just like,
"Joycelyn, you..." This-this is not Joycelyn.
Like, what's going on?
Joycelyn did not return to school
after the Christmas break for the spring semester
in January, and her room was completely cleaned out.
Finally, on July 17 of 2017,
we see our daughter on TMZ.
I'm in a happy place with my life,
and I'm not being brainwashed or anything like that.
-A lot of people saw the hand gestures -Right.
when he was cutting her off,
and she could barely answer the questions correctly.
INTERVIEWER: Are you currently in Georgia? Or where are you?
I actu-- I'm not-- No, I'm not.
INTERVIEWER: Are you with other roommates?
Are you free to go from where you are?
No. Uh, I won't speak on that as well.
The very next day, they came out
-with another second interview in front of the... -Video in the park.
In the park.
And she came out with a whole nother statement.
Hi, this is Joycelyn Savage,
and I would like to direct this message
to my family.
I am happy where I'm at
and the people that I'm around.
I love you to death,
but I need you to understand me.
Back in August of 2017, I got a phone call
from Tim Savage.
And then he startedto det,
um, the allegations that he had made
against Robert Sylvester Kelly, and-and, of course,
I was shocked and appalled.
And on August 4, 2017,
we had our initial press conference,
where we outlined that he'd hired a legal team
to help reunite with his daughter.
Stockholm syndrome, that's what my daughter has right now.
My daughter's severely brainwashed.
She's brainwashed to the point
where she's not the same Joycelyn that we knew.
It kind of started a media frenzy with his fans.
People started accusing us of selling her to him
and all of that.
TIM: We was all alone. It-it was hard.
It was terrifying.
People said a lot of negative things
about my parents.
Some people even sent death threats
to my parents and to our family.
People said, "Well, they're just in it for the money.
They're just in it for the fame."
Or "They're just in it for the spotlight."
The perception were that we took money...
$20,000.
$20,000 from Robert Sylvester Kelly.
And we handed our daughters over,
which we haven't received a dimefrom him.
We would never sell our daughter.
That is so unheard of. This is a piece of crack.
-[scoffs] -If the Savages would've known
what was going on, like, from the start,
yeah, all of that would've been shut down.
-Especially from Tim. All of that would've been shut down. -Yeah, it never--
-it never would've got to this point. -Never.
GRIGGS: One thing I can say about the Savage family,
they are very strong.
And they love their daughter immensely.
They put up with all of the lies.
They put up with all of the slander and the defamation.
They are resolute in getting contact
with their daughter, no matter what it takes,
within the bounds of the law.
TIM: Joycelyn knew that her granddad
had passed, and...
she still could not come
because of the control issue
from Robert Sylvester Kelly.
The Joycelyn that I knew
would definitely want to come to her granddaddy's funeral.
And I, um...
it always lead back to my father.
He was always there for me, and he was always there
for Joycelyn. But on his dying day
at the hospital, he told me, he said,
"Son, do whatever you have to do to get my Joycella..."
[shuddering]
"...back home."
And I promised him that. And I was the last person
to touch that casket, and I promised my father
I would do whatever it takes
to get Joycelyn out of this situation
and to get these other young ladies free.
[siren wailing]
[horns honking]
TIM: This is crazy.
We up here, so close... to Joycelyn.
We, as a family,
have to fight this fight,
not as playing checkers but playing chess,
because of who Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly is
and his team of enablers. And we have to play
every quarter to what moves we make that's in benefit
of Joycelyn. Whether it's being quiet,
whether it's talking, whether it's trying
to do everything we can to get her out this situation.
[line rings]
OPERATOR: Chicago Emergency Management.
Hi, I would like to do a well-being check
on my older sister.
Okay, what's the address?
It's the Trump Tower's, um, residency side.
Okay, and what's going on with your sister?
I heard some disturbing news about my sister,
and I just want to know if she's okay.
Um, I know she-- I haven't seen her in over three years.
But, um, you know, I heard that she's been abused,
and she's not well right now.
Okay, and what's your sister's name?
Joycelyn Savage.
[indistinct voice on radio]
-JONJELYN: Hi. This is... -OFFICER: Are you Joycelyn?
I'm Jailyn Savage, and I'm Joycelyn Savage's sister.
I was the one who called, um, about a disturbance
-about my sister. -JONJELYN: Yeah.
JAILYN: I just want to check on her well-being.
If it could be just me and my little sister
can go up there with one of you guys
and see ourself that she's okay as well.
-JONJELYN: So, that's... -OFFICER: Well, we can knock on the door,
-but we can't break it in. -JAILYN: Right.
-Thank you. -[siren wailing]
Being in Chicago right now and knowing that my sister
is literally minutes away from me,
it makes me want to go and just grab her
and be like, "Joycelyn, I'm here,
and I'm coming to save you."
-Uh, just-just watch-- just-just right here. -Okay. Okay, just her.
-Just hang out here. -Okay. Just take her.
JAILYN: I just really want to see her
so bad. I really want to see her.
If I just get five minutes with her, I would be happy.
It would make my whole entire... three years of fighting for her.
JAILYN: Hello, I'm here to check up on my older sister,
Joycelyn Tyra Savage.
TIM: This has been a traumatic experience.
We just want our daughter back.
[siren wails]
[Jailyn crying]
JAILYN: Hi. Hello. I'm here to
check up on my older sister, Joycelyn Tyra Savage.
TIM: This has been a traumatic experience
for me and my family.
We haven't seen her since the year of 2016.
We just want our daughter back.
We just want our family back.
We fight not just for Joycelyn--
we fight for all these victims.
[Jailyn crying]
She's not here. Uh, she's not here.
TIM: She's not here?
I know she's here. He said he heard that
from the residents.
I'm missing her.
-I want to see her. -JONJELYN: Yeah, we only want to see her.
It's like, we don't know why other people telling us,
um, they're not there. We're not hearing this
-directly from her. We're hearing from other people -Right.
she's not here. Or, um...
-That's the reason why... -She-- You know, anything.
That's why we're fighting so hard.
-...we continue to fight until we see Joycelyn. -Yes. Right.
-JAILYN: You know, it's hard... -And make sure that
Joycelyn come home safe and sound.
TIM: Heavenly Father, we come to you today.
Our prayers are not being answered,
-but we know that you are in control of everything, -JAILYN: Mm-hmm.
O Heavenly Father.
-In due time and due season... -JONJELYN: Yes.
...you will have Joycelyn back with us.
-JAILYN: Mm-hmm. -In Jesus' name, we give this pray.
-Everyone, please say amen. -ALL: Amen.
-Thank you. -JAILYN: Whew. Love you.
TIM: Love you all. We're gonna get her back.
LIZZETTE: I decided to share my story
'cause I heard the parents.
I heard from the Savages. I heard from the Clarys.
And when you're young like I was--
I have a lot in common with Azriel.
She was 17, I was 17.
She's a phenomenal singer.
AZRIEL: ♪ O say♪
♪ Can you see♪
♪ By the dawn's♪
♪ Early light.♪
LIZZETTE: She is just a bright, bright young woman.
When you watch her videos when she was young,
she was so vivacious, like, you know, like,
she had the light-- a light in her eyes,
and now she's so grown.
And I really came out for her and Joy.
ALICE: Our daughter met R. Kelly at a concert in Orlando.
She was 17. Azriel was 17.
I mean, I miss my daughter beyond words. It's unimaginable.
Like, no one can know this feeling.
I guess it's sort of like when you have a child
that's lost and passed away, you know, you know they're gone.
Like, you're never gonna see them again.
But this is a little bit different because I know
she's somewhere. It's just that I'm not talking to her,
because he won't allow her to talk to me or whatever.
It's very-- it's heartbreaking.
Um...
[crying]
[sniffles]
-[sobbing] -It'll be all right.
ARMANI CLARY: Azriel was definitely more or less the glue
to the family.
I didn't really realize that
until this whole situation happened,
and I saw how people could really
just fall apart without Azriel.
She really had, like,
a light to her that just kind of made people
want to be around her.
A'ICEIS CLARY: I still love her,
and I want her to know that I'm still just protecting her.
And I-I only want the best for her,
and I'm willing to fight for her no matter what.
ANGELO: Social media is probably one of the brutalest places
that anybody can ever have experience at.
Especially when you're fighting a celebrity.
Me and my wife have been labeled
from some of the worst things...
like we don't-- we-we used our daughter.
We pimped our daughter out.
We-we-we, um... we sold our daughter.
ARMANI: When I see people blaming my parents,
I feel like people are just... are looking at it
from a very small window and just giving
their naive judgment and, you know, their opinion.
My family fought for Azriel,
like... And I mean really fought.
I remember the, um,
Mute R. Kelly fan page was getting a lot of his,
um, concerts shut down.
My mom hit me up, and she was like,
"You know, there might be this concert in Tampa.
You know, they say that it's actually coming."
We saw the flyer, we saw the, uh, posting online,
so we decided to go.
The plan was to see Azriel.
At the time of the concert, it'd have been
three or four years since she'd seen Azriel.
So I was very nervous, you know.
I didn't want to see my sister...
like, be looking really crazy or, like, really rough or,
like, bruised or anything like that.
So I was really just scared for that, most part.
And, um, when we got there, we, uh,
watched, you know, the entire performance.
-[audience cheering] -Azriel was onstage.
I was really happy to see Azriel.
I just really felt, like, you know, happy.
I wanted to, like, just, like, go up there,
give her a hug, you know, and talk to her,
but, obviously, that wasn't gonna happen.
[audience shouting]
How my mom got on the stage is truly beyond me.
All I know is, they had a section
on the front where, like, I guess
it was only women that was allowed in there,
and she got in there. And then once she got in there,
the next thing I know,
she was getting called onstage.
I guess they were trying to pull, you know,
superfans on the stage. So if you're up there
and everyone else is singing all the words to the song
and dancing and you're not, you kind of look suspicious.
So she definitely tried to blend in, you know,
and wiggle her way closer to the side of the stage
where Azriel was at.
[cheering]
She's onstage, Azriel's onstage.
Only thing between her and her daughter is
a couple of security guards.
[cheering]
There's no book on, you know--
to tell you how to, you know,
confront your daughter you haven't seen in four years.
You kind of just got to feel the emotion and act upon it.
[siren wailing]
eering]
-[crowd cheering] -♪
ARMANI: How my mom got on the stage is truly beyond me.
She's onstage, Azriel's onstage.
Only thing between her and her daughter
is a couple of security guards.
My mom went over there and...
she first walked up to Azriel and tried to talk.
And then, I guess, once she noticed that
the security guards was coming for her,
she tried to grab Azriel
to, like, more or less,
"If he pulls me, he pulls both of us."
And the security guard did exactly that, you know.
He, uh-- One pulled her, one tried to pull them apart.
And she yanked Azriel
when he pushed her back so that
Azriel got snatched out of the chair.
I didn't expect the security guards
to be as aggressive as they were.
One guy had her in a headlock, one guy had her arms,
and they, like, more or less, dragged her off the stage.
I ran. I tried-- I jumped on the stage.
I ran through a couple security guards.
One grabbed my foot. I pulled away from him.
Then security put us right in the hands
of the, uh, police officers,
who then, you know, put handcuffs on all of us.
-[siren wailing] -After that, they, uh, put us in cop cars--
in separate cop cars--
and I didn't see my mom for
the next couple hours.
I don't like to see my mom down,
and it takes a lot to even get her down,
so for her to be down the whole entire ride back...
it made me want to help her.
Even though I couldn't at the time.
A'ICEIS: My mom, um...
I just know she deals, she deals with it, but I know she's hurt.
But watching the interview with my sister
and, um, Gayle King,
oh, man, it broke my mom.
Do either of you want to sing?
BOTH: No.
None of you have any singing ambitions?
No. That's a l-- That's another lie.
I don't think my mom answered a call from anyone
for about a week after that interview answer,
because she was so hurt.
I think she felt betrayed, because my mom was the one
who always helped Azriel with her dance moves
and practiced with the girls their dance routines.
And my mom was the one who helped her design her outfits.
And anything that happened with Azriel singing,
my mom was always the first one there.
So I felt like my mom felt like she got...
stabbed in the back, because all of that hard work,
and all those hours lost of sleep, and...
She's doing all this stuff with Azriel while also still
going to work to support us as a mother.
They were only doing this stuff because Azriel wanted it.
It-it really broke my mom.
My mom called out of work.
Um, she was just heartbroken. She was crying.
I just couldn't... I couldn't... I couldn't believe that
she was even saying those things.
Like, it was so heartbreaking.
On the Gayle King interview, Azriel stated that she tried
to commit suicide because of the singing, um,
and the practicing with my parents.
My parents made singing like a job for me.
'Cause it's not something I wanted to do.
Not only that, I even tried to kill myself, because
I did not want to sing, as a cry out for help to tell them
this is not what I want to do with my life.
Azriel spoke about we was forcing her,
forcing music on her.
We made it like a job, right?
Far from the truth.
Kelly would have to have an angle.
So what angle better than
stripping her away from her music?
Because I'm quite sure she told him about
why she attempted suicide.
And why she attempted suicide was over a bad relationship.
ARMANI: Azriel is a person who loves very strongly,
and I think Azriel loved the guy that she was with
before she met Robert Kelly.
And I felt like she was crushed
when she found out that he cheated on her.
ANGELO: You know, to see her like that,
I wish that on no parent.
I wish no parent would ever have to
watch their child attempt to take their own life
or harm theirself in any type of way.
And, you know, only thing we was wondering,
as I talked to her mom and everybody, it's like, why?
Humans are primed for relationships,
and the drive for connection in relationships, for some people,
can be very strong.
And loneliness, and feelings of being abandoned or lonely
can drive us, really, viscerally and unconsciously.
I would argue someone who attempts suicide
over a relationship has some strong c-codependent
or enmeshment issues.
And they don't know where to separate themselves
from their partner.
They don't know who they are outside of this relationship.
I know my daughter may be one of the ones
that feel like she got to follow him all the way.
I would hope, uh, on everything that she's stronger than that.
And I think that all the girls, once they snap out of that,
that they gonna get it and they gonna understand that, hey,
there's life outside of R. Kelly.
So I'm not gonna stop until that open communication up,
until my wife can get on that phone and call her daughter.
Then I can finally rest.
My dad spends...
quite a lot of time
working on getting Azriel back.
It had gotten so bad at one point,
his employees told me
to make sure he's getting sleep, because they haven't seen him
sleep in-- I think it was four days straight.
I do worry about my dad's health, um,
'cause, you know, he-- you kind of lose yourself in this.
Like, you-you, you know, he doesn't--
he doesn't do nothing extra.
Like, uh, holidays. It was very limiting for him, like,
"Oh, I can't do much, I'm sorry.
I'm-I'm fighting a war right now."
He's in war, and this is his main goal and his main focus.
I do feel as though the R. Kelly situation has took a toll
on my parents' marriage.
ARMANI: My parents' marriage has crumbled.
They've been married for 25 years strong,
and they both started blaming themselves.
And I think that's what really put a big strain
on their relationship.
My mom couldn't accept it.
ANGELO: My marriage was affected by this whole...
situation with Azriel.
Me and Alice blamed each other quietly, unspoken.
A lot of the disconnect.
And it drew us apart.
You know, there was one point where
we couldn't even talk about it.
ARMANI: He went into fight mode, where he wanted to
let the world know what kind of sick man this is
so that no one else has to deal with this.
And my mom, more or less, is just so hurt
that it's actually happening that she just beats herself up.
I know the only thing that would fix my wife's broken heart
was bringing her baby girl home.
A'ICEIS: My son has suffered from my sister leaving
to be with R. Kelly.
All he knew was Titi, that's all he knew.
And for me it's difficult
because he just asks about her all the time.
And he just always say, "Well, where's Titi?
Where's Titi? When she's gonna come home?"
I can hide my pain,
but his pain is like,
it breaks my heart 'cause it's like
we can't even pick up the phone and call her.
It really hurts.
Aunt Titi, I miss you so much.
Aunt Titi, can you come back?
I want you to come with me.
A'ICEIS: Sometimes I still feel like I see her in our house,
or I hear her singing.
Like, sometimes I feel like, she-she's-she, like, died.
But I just miss being around her.
She was so silly and bubbly and...
being the human beatbox that she was. [sniffles]
You know, you don't get to see her,
you don't get to talk to her,
you don't get-get to interact with her or anything.
It's like she's gone.
And it's really hard and she don't understand. [sniffles]
Like, you just leave out of people lives,
like, as if you died.
ARMANI: When Robert Kelly goes to jail,
me and my father's first step will be to get Azriel home,
safe and sound.
After that, we will get Azriel
as much help as she possibly needs.
I think there needs to be a lot of healing,
but I'm sure we could get back to where we used to be.
I want her to come home to the family
that was there when she left
because if the family's
broken apart, she's gonna feel like she is
to blame for all of that.
I don't think my family is gonna heal.
NANCY LOO: Overnight, R & B star R. Kelly arrested
in Chicago on federal sex crime charges.
A federal grand jury has indicted Kelly on 13 counts,
including child pornography,
enticement of a minor, and obstruction of justice.
R. Kelly spent the night
in the Metropolitan Correctional Center
instead of his luxury home here in the Trump Tower.
All of these charges are decades old,
and all of a sudden people are coming forward.
That's all I have is allegations.
He's presumed innocent, we believe he's innocent,
we're gonna fight to prove he's innocent.
If I was R. Kelly's defense attorney,
one-- I'd get rid of my team,
two-- I'd have a real conversation with my client.
I've never, ever seen somebody beat trial
twice.
He's already gotten his one, which was 2008,
so now you're working on loaded dice.
I, in 43 years, have never seen so many charges filed
in so many jurisdictions
against one celebrity.
What would justice look like to me?
[stammers] Since we can't turn back the hands of time,
jail forever, and
something more societally
in understanding that,
um, this kind of behavior can't be tolerated
and be put aside in favor of profit.
Nobody's saying, "Burn his records," right?
They're saying be aware of the context,
be aware of what he's really saying in that canon of music,
be aware of the pain he caused to people.
And then I think there's no right or wrong in art.
If you can still listen to "Ignition [Remix]"
or "Step in the Name of Love" or "I Believe I Can Fly"
and take pleasure from it, I understand that.
Because it played at your kid's kindergarten graduation,
it played at every backyard barbecue you ever went to,
it was your wedding song.
It is your song as much as it's his,
but know the pain he caused and condemn it.
You can condemn the man and still appreciate the art.
Personally, I can, and I don't think there's one answer.
I think every single individual is gonna have a different answer
to that question of when she can separate art and artist.
You know, there are a lot of artists
who have the genius mind and they're just
in a different state,
but their music, their art,
their words, they live on.
I mean, we can go down a whole list
of great artists--
just as troubled as could be,
but they left us gems and jewels,
and we-we think about that and it's like, wow.
So I don't know if you can separate...
the two.
I could see, uh, where some would feel that way,
that maybe we should not support R. Kelly,
uh, with his-his art.
Uh, but it's to me, just that, art.
When I look at a painting on a wall,
the first thing I-I think of is not who painted the-the art,
it's how that art makes me feel.
Uh, and so I think art is somewhat different, uh, because
it's an expression, and everyone gets a different expression.
I think if a song of R. Kelly
can help someone get through a-a day or a moment,
uh, I don't know if it's,
"I don't want to hear it because it's R. Kelly."
If you can still listen to his music knowing what he has done,
you may need to come to terms with your own survivorship
around sexual violence, um, and your own contentment
around the way in which girls are treated.
You are choosing R. Kelly over black women and girls
who are in your family, who you may have birthed,
who have raised you.
In my opinion, this music is violent.
This music is triggering for so many.
That's enough for me to know that this music isn't healthy
or something that I should be listening to.
While you're muting R. Kelly, are you...?
You know, same thing with Michael Jackson, like, you know,
I still hear Michael Jackson records.
I still hear records that R. Kelly wrote for other artists
on the radio.
Are we going to mute Whitney Houston
and the records that R. Kelly wrote for Whitney?
Are we going to mute all of the other big artists,
Faith Evans, you know, are we gonna mute that?
Are we gonna mute Nivea? Are we gonna mute...
You know, the list goes on and on and on.
Are we gonna say to those artists,
"Why don't you take the money that you made
"from that R. Kelly record and
"put that money to use to a family
so that this doesn't happen again?"
Are we gonna do that? Maybe we should.
ANGELO: When I found out that he was
in handcuffs, I immediately hit it,
which I was still about 20 minutes away.
Hit it to the Trump.
So now I'm in a panic,
you know, as a parent gonna be,
and now I'm running around, trying to locate my daughter.
But we have no reward right now
because my daughter's still not with me.
But the one piece I have in my heart,
she not being abused,
she not being manipulated anymore.
See, all the stories getting ready to come to light
and the truth gonna prevail everything.
It feels like that's the first deep breath we were able to take
in the past four years, and, uh,
we don't need him getting out this time,
we need him to sit.
I-- Hopefully-- I-I hope he spends, um,
the rest of his life in jail, honestly.
My feelings for Rob-- I hate him to his guts.
I don't want to see him.
His voice scares me.
The fact that federal charges
have come against him is a huge step.
But, I mean, I feel like he's ruined my life.
LIZZETTE: I just felt like this is karma.
I think I will always care about him...
and I will always love him.
Even though it was terrible...
it's, like, I love the...
the little soul...
the-the little boy.
[crying]: And I am not happy,
and I'm not boasting, "Oh, I took him down."
That was not my intention.
My intention was just to tell my story,
to maybe reach to him and say...
"There's something wrong with me!
I've been doing this for too long!"
That was my point in telling this story.
So that's it.
I don't want to hear from the trolls anymore.
I don't want to hear from anyone.
I'm telling you myself, I will always love him.
That's it. The good part of him.
The little boy that's wounded.
Because I still have a little girl inside that's wounded,
and he hurt me.
[sniffles] But I forgive him.
I forgave him.
I don't think people realize
that that was somebody that I loved at one point.
And, um...
It wasn't a celebration,
you know, to watch him lose everything.
But I knew...
...if I didn't say something
that... it would keep going.
I think that...
he's sitting in jail,
and it's like having a...
14-year-old boy sitting in jail.
And there are a lot of people
that are footloose and fancy-free right now...
that should be there, too.
♪
ARMANI: He's not only spitting in our faces,
he's spitting in the whole America face,
like: "Look at me,
I've been able to do this for the past 30 years, unchecked."
Unchecked, like...
this-this is us, America, this is us letting this happen.
So you got to... eventually we got to wake up.
-We have to wake up. -ODELEYE: After the first,
the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth,
we could have said, "No more."
But then there was the sixth, the seventh, the eighth.
We could have stopped it then. Then there's the ninth,
the tenth, the 11th...
Like, I mean, this just went on and on and on,
and we all just stepped in the name of love
and we danced to his music and we paid for his concerts,
and we gave him the lifestyle that enabled this,
even though we knew what he was doing.
We owe them everything.
CUNNINGHAM: We have to properly contextualize this moment.
It is decades of internal conversations
that have been happening in beauty shops
and at kitchen tables
and on couches between black women.
And someone like Tarana and so many others...
shining a bright light on that
and ensuring that we don't get to just skip past this moment
because it's uncomfortable.
It took several exposés,
well-written exposés by seasoned journalists,
it took numerous articles,
and it took an online protest,
an international movement,
and a three-day documentary
for the world to start talking about R. Kelly.
And then we have this...
we have this moment where he's...
facing these charges now.
Who knows what's gonna happen,
but it's-it's a pretty big deal that...
that the charges even happen.
ODELEYE: People need to be looking
at him as a case study, um,
for what happens in silence.
You know, this-this has been going on for...
close to 30 years now because of silence.
But because so many women now
are brave enough to come forward, and they're...
they know that there's a network of support
that will help buoy them up when they do come forward,
we've been able to break that silence down.
♪
LEMIEUX: It doesn't matter
that these women didn't speak up before.
Look at all the reasons they have not to.
Look at all of the opportunities
that we as a community, as a culture,
as the state of Illinois, as consumers of music,
had chance after chance after chance to say, "No.
"We don't deal with this person.
"This person needs help, he is a danger
"to people around him, and he's not going to stop
this behavior, and so we're gonna turn him off."
NEWSMAN: U.S. Marshals led R. Kelly down
from the government jet and took him
across the tarmac to a waiting pickup truck.
R. Kelly is charged with racketeering,
allegedly using his bodyguard and others to recruit
young girls for sex.
DeROGATIS: This is what they get mobsters
and drug gangs on.
He is the only person I'm aware of,
in the entire history of popular music,
charged with a federal criminal enterprise
under the RICO statutes,
the way they get the Gambinos and the Genoveses.
Kelly is now part of that esteemed company.
NEWSWOMAN: R. Kelly goes back in court.
Kelly's facing both local and federal charges,
including sexual assault,
child pornography, and obstruction of justice.
DeROGATIS: No one in pop music history
has ever faced so many felony charges.
I have it at 195 years, if he's convicted of everything.
After a century in jail,
who's gonna count anymore?
He's never gonna be free again.
There's never been a case like this
in the history of popular music,
and that's really saying something.
ourse,
the survivors themselves that have come forward, there are
a few sets of parents
that their daughters are still...
in this man's world, and even with him being incarcerated,
and you'd think: Okay, well, he's in jail awaiting trial,
they can go home, somebody can go get them.
That's not what we've seen.
Even knowing the scrutiny
that they would face, we see footage of them
still connected to him
and still allegedly supporting him
and-and wanting to support him
as he prepares for trial.
We, as a family,
eat and sleep this from December...
-of 2016 -Mm-hmm.
until now.
I think, because we talk about it so much,
it keeps us fighting for her.
And me leaning on my wife
and my wife leaning on me to... for an ear,
back and forth, it helps,
until we get her home.
Like most people will be like, "Oh, why you ain't snatch her?
Why you ain't...?" My daughter grown.
She's still a grown woman.
So, to put myself through humiliation,
making my daughter
hate me more,
trying to force her to leave
instead of help her understand the truth.
I think my daughter know every day that she wake up,
her father's somewhere close.
I'm quite sure she can feel my presence when I'm in Chicago
and I'm watching her from afar.
BRUCE: It's... it-it's...
it's so much, it's so much and so many things is going on
that, I mean...
it's-it's too much.
It's almost too much for meto bear.
And it's not me, you know?
I'm not dealing with that. Matter of fact,
my situation is nothing-- I'll be out next year.
What he's facing, he may never get out.
I'm going to, you know, when I get out of here,
I'm gonna go to Carey, I'm-a tell him, "Look,
"whether he's found guilty or whether he's found innocent,
he gonna still be our brother."
What, we gonna stop loving him because...
uh, because of a verdict?
No.
I will definitely be there.
My brother...
Robert, I do love you.
DR. JOAN MORGAN: R. Kelly is symbolic of...
a much larger systemic problem.
It's one thing when the celebrity is out here,
or it's a Harvey Weinstein who you don't know or you may be
umpteen degrees of separation from.
But when it starts to be the men that you know,
the men that you've worked with, the men who are in your family,
the men who are colleagues, who under different conditions,
'cause you're not dealing with that side of them, you like,
it brings up a different kind of reckoning.
Like, how do I acknowledge
this thing that this person has done
and still...
honor the love inside that I felt
and perhaps even still feel for that person?
BRITTANY: Reckonings like...
the one R. Kelly is currently going through
always open up broader conversations in society.
I know men who are deeply surprised
by just how many women have a #MeToo story.
If you're not having a conversation about consent
with your sons like you are with your daughters,
then you're doing it the wrong way.
Dudes, we need to sit down and actually have
real conversations about what it is to be men
in, uh, in society and how to be men,
because most of the conversations that men have--
and I know this as a man growing up in America--
are about bull[bleep],
are about, like, conquest
or about, like, how big your [bleep] is
or about how potent you are.
And that's the kind of thing that leads to not having
real conversations where you could go,
"Hey, dude, that's not... don't say that.
Don't be thatway."
What's important is that...
that the law supports survivors
and that the law does a better job
of encouraging survivors to report.
Sexual abuse, sexual assault
is one of themost underreported crimes.
And I think that's because victims...
fear that they won't be believed,
that the biggest evidence is not a-a forensic kit,
it's your memory.
It's your willingness to put yourself out there
and talk about
the most traumatic thing that's happened to you.
You know, it starts not just in the courtroom.
When you have to tell a parent.
When you then have to tell a police officer.
When you have to tell a nurse or a doctor or a social worker.
That's before you even get to the prosecutor.
And so I think our system has not been, uh...
operating in a compassionate way
that welcomes those who have these experiences to come
without the fear of being re-traumatized.
And I-I think that's something
that we have to actively work on.
BURKE: For a lot of survivors,
part of our healing comes down to making sure other people
don't ever feel like we felt,
making sure nobody else has to carry that burden
or live with that trauma or, you know, deal with the demons
that come up when you have survived
any form of violence, but particularly sexual violence.
People have to have their healing separated
from whatever happens to the person that caused the harm,
because nothing may ever happen,
and you still have to live your life.
♪
ASANTE: The goal is to help all victims,
not just victims of Rob.
For those victim shaming us,
it could be your child
or somebody close to you that's being abused
watching you victim shame us
that they're afraid to let you know that they're being abused.
So I just want people to be mindful
of the things that you're doing to each other.
TIFFANY: I was the first girl,
and nobody believed me.
I made it through.
I wasn't gonna let...
R. Kelly be
the end of my life story.
♪ I got the power♪
♪ Ooh♪
KANIKA: I survived the backlash,
I survived R. Kelly, I survived therapy.
♪ Power♪
I am still a survivor of all things.
♪ I feel the power♪
♪ Power...♪
EBONY: It can be a learning experience,
and if you take that bad part out
and learn from it, that's great.
LANITA: I didn't know
that I would be advocating for myself.
I love life now.
DOMINIQUE: This is what living is supposed to be like.
I'm five months' pregnant, and it's a girl.
♪ This is where you end and I begin♪
I was praying for a boy, but...
I was blessed with a girl.
♪ I am the one I've been waiting for...♪
FAITH: You have to find inner peace
and know that there's gonna be somebody
who doesn't believe me,
and there's people who aren't as passionate
about the situation like I am,
and there's people who just don't understand.
♪
LIZZETTE: People aren't afraid to talk anymore.
There's nothing secret; that's what we're moving toward.
♪ I feel the power♪
♪ Ooh...♪
JERHONDA: Joycelyn and Azriel,
you are worth so much more than Rob.
♪ I feel the power...♪
You have so much to live for.
We're still fighting for you, we really are.
We are fighting for you two to come home.
And you will survive R. Kelly.
Azriel, she has...
left the side of, um, Robert Kelly,
and she's taking an independent role
and taking control of her life as an independent woman
to show the world that she is strong, she is independent,
and that she, you know...
look forward to a bright future on her own.
My heart, and, you know,
that pain, all this, you know, been-been healed.
If I was a man that cried...
I'm crying right now.
So y'all can see underneath,
I'm pouring with tears right now.
But I am happy.
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